Costs of Marijuana Legalization

Posted on October 4, 2022 View all news

Download the infographic here:

costs-of-legalization Download

Increase Youth Use and Harms to Children

https://www.publichealth.columbia.edu/public-health-now/news/major-uptick-reported-cannabis-vaping-all-adolescents

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/add.15895

https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/marijuana-hallucinogen-use-among-young-adults-reached-all-time-high-2021

2. Increases Road Fatalities

Drugged driving surpassed drunk driving as the cause of fatalities in motor vehicle crashes. The #1 drug in those crashes is marijuana- page 9 and 10 https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/56125

In Colorado Traffic deaths with drivers who test positive for marijuana doubled from 2013 to 2020. – https://www.thenmi.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/RMHIDTA-Marijuana-Report-2021.pdf

The body count will continue to climb if there is Federal legalization as one study estimates an additional 6,800 traffic fatalities per year. – https://thecrimereport.org/2020/07/22/recreational-pot-linked-to-rise-in-traffic-deaths/

3. Increases Crime and Violence

https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ajp.2020.19101008

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2775255

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6461328/

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07418825.2019.1567807

4. Increases The Black Market

https://www.dea.gov/sites/default/files/2020-01/2019-NDTA-final-01-14-2020_Low_Web-DIR-007-20_2019.pdf

5. Increases Drug Use and Overdoses, Suicides, and Mental Illness.

Early initiation of marijuana is a dominant predictor of Opioid Use Disorder. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0376871620300041

https://www.publichealth.columbia.edu/public-health-now/news/major-uptick-reported-cannabis-vaping-all-adolescents

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35901795/

6. Higher potency=more psychosis and more cannabis use disorder