Recently on CBS News 60 Minutes Report on Colorado Marijuana, Governor John Hickenlooper was asked to reflect on his state’s pot experiment. He warned residents of other states not to legalize marijuana. His state recently passed a law requiring more labels and more packaging on edible marijuana. He described regulating marijuana as “more than tricky.”
One of the most disturbing facts in the 60 Minutes was stated by Dr. Steven Simerville. He said 71 teens showing up in his hospital in Pueblo testing positive for THC. It begs the questions: Why are so many teens in the hospital and why are so many teens using pot?
Anyone who reads faces honestly knows that Gov. Hickenlooper is trying to put the best possible spin on a bad situation. The marijuana lobby wrote Amendment 64 in 2012 to give tremendous amounts of money to the marijuana industry.
Other States Voting on Pot Experiment
The five legalization initiatives on the ballots in California, Arizona, Massachusetts, Maine and Nevada this year are also designed to benefit Big Marijuana. Here are the problems.
- Although the cities and counties can opt out of retail stores, it will be very, very difficult as in Colorado and entail legal battles and fights that are yet to come. (Here’s what is happening in Pueblo)
- All ballots allow the sale of edibles without restrictions on the strength of edibles. Edibles can look like popular candies and often send children to the ER. (It has already happened in California.)
- No laws for testing stoned drivers are in place and the ballots suggest waiting. (An exception is Nevada which has driving limits.) The number of fatal crashes caused by stoned drivers doubled in Washington, after legalization.
- These ballots allow home grows of more than one plant, some as many as 12 plants. These home grows set up a situation of annoyance for neighbors. Law enforcement can’t do anything.
- Home grows are also a situation for shooting deaths, crime and theft.
The Denver District Attorney recently wrote a letter to Californians warning about the increase in crime that comes with legalization.
When Coloradans tried to put together a ballot petition to limit the strength of marijuana to 16% THC, the marijuana industry bought off the petitioners and killed the democratic process.
Governor Hickenlooper hopes – that is hopes – some problems can be resolved. The state now spends $8 million trying to warn teens not to use pot. Although the Colorado Healthy Kids Survey suggests that teen use did not go up, key counties did not participate in the survey and there are problems in the survey.
In short, marijuana legalization is written to benefit the financiers who are trying to make money off of something that can harm teens and harm society as a whole.