Colo. marijuana legalization taking a toll

“legalization has spawned a heightened demand for social services in southern Colorado, including an 81 percent rise in marijuana-related calls to emergency response dispatchers in 2014.” BPNews

Discussion

Legalize a dangerous mind altering drug, and you get more of it, and more abuse.
Legalize it and people who never smoked marijuana before, will begin doing so.
Legalize it and people will come to your state to legally indulge; then they will need your help and services.
Legalize it and individuals, families, government, taxpayers will pay, and pay.

Very good article.
David R. Brumbelow

While we’re linking resources, came across this one last week. Some really interesting research into the long term effects of marijuana exposure by youth and teens. Really sobering (no pun intended) piece.

http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=displa…

(And they link to an even more detailed study)

Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.

Does anyone here think these articles will have any bearing on the growth of marijuana legalization? Smoking is even more unhealthy and costs Americans more than $200 billion a year, with no known benefits, except that someone wants it. Same goes for alcohol and it hasn’t changed anyone’s minds in terms of legalization.

[dgszweda]

Does anyone here think these articles will have any bearing on the growth of marijuana legalization?

Yes.

I’m not sure where I have read this… might be in the linked article. But there is mounting evidence that even in states where pot has only been legalized for medical purposes, usage and exposure to the drug by youth has increased.

It’s not about about changing minds so much as easy access. Could it become a cultural taboo in the long run, as tobacco has? Maybe. But why wait for that?

Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.

The jury in my brain is still deliberating, but at the moment I continue to lean towards education as a better means of decreasing usage than making it illegal. And I don’t think we can accurately judge the impact of legalization until it isn’t the ‘new cool thing’ on the block anymore.