Legalization of Recreational Marijuana: Profits Before Safety?

As recreational use of marijuana not too long ago became legal in Washington state, many concerned dad and mom and educators feel this determination is sending the incorrect message to our youth and teens.  While product sales carry on to be brisk in Colorado, a single expert voices concern about the drug serving as a gateway for youth and teenagers browsing for tougher drugs.

“It’s actually a shame that however yet another state has permitted and is now peddling recreational marijuana,” mentioned Janina Kean, substance abuse and addiction specialist and President and CEO of Large Observe Recovery Center.  “Allowing the sale of recreational marijuana in Washington will only perpetuate drug use in the state and offer a gateway for our youth for undertaking more hardcore, illicit drugs this kind of as heroin, which is presently plaguing the nation.”

Logo of the United States National Institute on Drug Abuse, element of the National Institutes of Well being. (Photo credit score: Wikipedia)

Kean is on the front lines in the war towards substance abuse. Her interaction with youth, teens and mothers and fathers in excess of the previous 16 many years in her treatment method facility has shaped her views about the recently approved legislation legalizing recreational use of marijuana in Washington State. As an internationally recognized specialist and spokesperson in the field of substance abuse, Kean led the initial AA meeting to ever take spot in the Opiate Triangle of the Globe, the Yunnan Province of China, exactly where she was invited to teach doctors how to appropriately care for individuals with heroin addiction.

Keen has firsthand knowledge that marijuana is not as benign a drug as most folks feel, and contrary to well-known belief, marijuana is addictive.

She explains that many of her present opiate addicts she treats, who began using marijuana only a decade earlier, often stated “Marijuana is safe, it’s not addictive, it can’t hurt you.”

“Well, the recent legalization of recreational marijuana has only reinforced the belief of adolescents—that this is a safe drug,” explains Kean.

“If it employed for medicine or medicinal purposes”, her sufferers argue, and is legal, “it can not harm me.”

Estimates from the Nationwide Institute on Drug Abuse indicate that about 9 % of consumers turn out to be addicted. The number increases to 1 in six, or 17 percent, in end users who start off in their teenagers, and to 25-50 percent in day-to-day end users.

Kean explains that numerous sufferers she taken care of, whom only “casually” utilised  marijuana, have given that gone on to use more difficult drugs such as cocaine, heroin, and MDMA or Molly following reaching a plateau, and finish up back at her therapy facility.

In truth, in accordance to a 2010 Nationwide Survey on Drug Use and Wellness (NSDUH), marijuana accounted for 4.5 million of the estimated 7.one million Americans who had been addicted to, or abusing illicit medication. Data from 2009 in a related examine signifies that marijuana was the primary drug of abuse in these 12 many years and older entering drug therapy plans. And 61 % of individuals under the age of 15 also reported marijuana as their principal drug of abuse.

In response to permitting recreational use of the drug, Kean feels that states such as Washington and Colorado that want to make money off the sale of recreational marijuana want to incorporate statutes in their legislation which dictate that a specified fixed percentage of recreational marijuana profits be directed toward treatment method beds and study on the use and misuse of marijuana in every single state.

In truth, in accordance to an report in USA Right now, Colorado has previously collected practically 24 million in marijuana taxes from state licensed shops, and Washington State seems forward to collecting up to 190 million dollars in the up coming 4 many years based mostly on government projections.

“These states are only allowing use and revenue of marijuana because there is funds to be made and as such, they need to have to pay out for the consequences of their revenue, improved drug abuse and addiction amid the youth,” added Kean.

As of now, there is no allocation of funds as element of legislation in Washington or Colorado which dictates (or mandates) care or study to examine and measure abuse and addiction that may stick to from marijuana use.  Kean feels this is the moral thing to do if these states will be allowed to carry on to sell the drug for recreational functions.

With two deaths straight stemming from marijuana edibles (1 suicide and 1 murder case) in the past 12 months, along with the ever-present query regarding “legal” or “allowable” quantities of marijuana in drivers, defining the potential of recreational marijuana use in the US continues.

Legalization of Recreational Marijuana: Profits Before Safety?

Marijuana Legalization: What About The Teenagers?

Washington and Colorado are the first states to allow the use and sale of recreational marijuana for people who are at least 21. Medical marijuana, usually requiring a doctor’s prescription, is legal in 20 states and Washington D.C. So will that affect teenage drug use?

One of the worries of people who oppose marijuana legalization is that teenagers will have easier access to the drug, making them more likely to use it. It’s an important worry, given that some problems of cognitive development have been seen in people who start smoking pot young. Fortunately, we now have some empirical evidence to help settle the question.

Using 20 years of data from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey, researchers saw no discernible difference use after legalization, according to a study of 11 million people in the Journal of Adolescent Health. The researchers looked specifically at states that had legalized medical marijuana, and for which there was enough before-and-after data. They were then compared with a neighboring state that hadn’t legalized the drug. Marijuana use within the previous month was common across the study, with about 21 percent of students reporting it. But there wasn’t a difference between the states with legal weed and the states without it.

Marijuana use among teenagers has mostly remained steady, though it’s the most popular illicit drug among U.S. kids. One in three high school seniors has reported smoking weed in 2012. That year was the first time the survey asked about how teens acquired the drugs. Only 6 percent had their own prescription; about a third acquired marijuana using someone else’s prescription — precisely what worries some legislators.

But because that question is new, and because legalization is new, it’s hard to say whether those kids would have gotten their drugs by other means. However, the study today suggests that while the acquisition methods may have changed, the number of teens hasn’t. Much more data will be required to settle the question for sure, but this is a relieving start.

Marijuana Legalization: What About The Teenagers?