Parents Opposed to Pot urges Congress to reject the STATES Act, which would allow states to break federal law in order to become drug dealers. Senators Gardner and Warren and Representatives Blumenauer and Joyce introduced bills into their respective houses of Congress. Some states like California and Colorado feed illicit drug markets throughout the country. We should not sanction this rampant lawlessness, because it leads to terrible public health and safety consequences.
Most of Senator Gardner’s and Senator Warren’s constituents have buyer’s remorse over the way marijuana fails at regulation. Marijuana commercialization fails the public health tests in every state that has a commercial pot industry, while supporting a handful of investors who make money. It can’t solve any state’s financial issues, and California collects 1/3 of the taxes promised to the voters. The fallout of car crashes, mental illness and homelessness are worse than anyone ever imagined.
POPPOT.org, has over 50 testimonies from parents, individuals and families who report about the harms of marijuana, which caused mental illness, addiction and suicide in many of these cases.
Dangers of Marijuana
Dr. Martien Kooyman of the Netherlands stated, in 2014: “The damage to the brain from chronic use is worse compared with chronic use of heroin.”
MENTAL ILLNESS: No serious psychiatrist denies that marijuana use can trigger schizophrenia, according to Sir Robin Murray, one of the world’s leading researcher into mental illness. Yet most young people ages 13 – 35 believe the claim that marijuana is ‘harmless.”
GATEWAY DRUG It’s the foundation drug for all other drug use. As an adjunct drug, it is used to intensify the highs of alcohol, Xanax, heroin, cocaine, and to lessen the withdrawal effects of meth, heroin. This companion drug is also the great “enabler” drug of our current addiction epidemic.
While pot industry cheerleaders use surveys to claim that youth use doesn’t go up with legalization, we believe people in the trenches. “Horrible things are happening to kids,” said Dr. Libby Stuyt, one of our professional advisors. Jennifer Oldham interviewed Dr. Stuyt for a Washington Post article, “Potent pot, vulnerable teens trigger concerns in first states to legalize marijuana.”
A lawsuit in Oregon over the death of a 20-year-old who died while in psychosis demonstrates that our emergency health system doesn’t have the capacity to take care of the mental health victims who used pot prior to their breakdowns.
Claims that marijuana prohibition is racist lack merit
Mexico outlawed marijuana in 1920. A worldwide call to ban marijuana came from Egypt in the 1920s. Minorities have the most to lose by using drugs, because of the many ways people become disabled from — in education, on the job, mental health and in relationships. Arrests for Black and Hispanic youth went up after legalization in Colorado, although it went down for white youth.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE —there are ways to reform criminal justice without legalizing drugs.) Marijuana legalization is not a racial or social justice issue. Many leaders in the African – American community oppose legalization, saying that it amounts to companies “pimping” blacks and Hispanics.
In powerful testimony for a House subcommittee, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called out marijuana legalization for compounding the racial wealth gap.
Marijuana industry follows opioid pain pill industry
The former president of Purdue Pharma now runs a marijuana company.
Marijuana Industry follows playbook of OPIOID PAIN PILL industry:
- Promotes illness, give hope to people who can’t get relief from other medications
- Sell doctors on it and get advocates in Congress
- Create front organizations that are patient advocacy groups. Americans for Safe Access fulfills the same function for the marijuana industry as pain groups did for the opiate industry.
- Hire KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) to speak for them. John Boehner, Howard Dean and Rick Steves act as spokesmen for the marijuana industry. Former politicians now serve on the boards of marijuana companies.
Don’t repeat the mistake: Congress allowed the opiate industry to push pain pills and then waited far too many years to take action when it turned out to be a problem. Most (90%) of the young people who die of drug overdose began their drug use with marijuana. At least 68,000 people died of drug overdose last year. Over-prescribing by doctors is only one of the reasons for this problem. We believe that it’s also related to marijuana legalization, fraudulent practices of the medical marijuana industry and the message that “drugs are harmless.”
Keith Humphreys and Chelsea Shover published a study showing that medical marijuana doesn’t lead to fewer opioid deaths, as previously claimed.
States that legalized pot found out that marijuana industry is impervious to regulation.
“Rip the Bong”Van Winkle sleeps, as an addiction epidemic rattles our country.
Vermont, Maine and Illinois haven’t legalized marijuana, although they’re counted as states with legalization. Vermont rejected marijuana commercialization once again this year. Maine and Illinois plan to open dispensaries next year, unless lawsuits prevent it. Passing the STATES Act would lead to years of problems and years of regrets.
