Teens, Washington

Washington resident warns about recreational pot

A letter to the editor, Erie Times- News (PA) , found on Go.Erie. com, August 18, 2017    retyped by Nancy Starr :

I disagree with letter writer Larry Havard’s view that legalizing recreational marijuana in Pennsylvania would be a “win-win” solution to the financial problems of Erie’s schools.

I am a former Erieite now living in a state that has legalized both medical and so-called recreational marijuana. I have peacefully protested at two downtown pot shops in Spokane.

While protesting, I have seen young people who appear to be minors waiting outside the pot shop or going around the corner while a companion with the required ID goes in and buys marijuana. When I informed a pot shop owner about this, she told me that once their product leaves the store, it’s out of their hands.

The fact is that pot shops are unable to keep their products out of the hands, bodies and brains of minors, who are most vulnerable to marijuana’s harmful effects. This, in my opinion, is reason enough to overturn the legalization of so-called recreational marijuana where legalization has been approved. Young minds and lives matter.

I do not want a continuation of the war on drugs that has targeted and imprisoned the poor and especially people of color. Alternatives to arrest and jail for nonviolent drug crimes exist and should be expanded.

— KH, Spokane, Washington  (we are leaving out his full name to protect his identity)

Addiction

Addicted to Weed? How I Suddenly Came to Realize the Truth

Addicted to Weed?  in The Fix on July 19, 2017

There was so much misinformation about marijuana that I was willing to doubt anything negative, even if it was backed by hard science. Then I got a brain scan.

I’d always been told that marijuana addiction was impossible, that it was a harmless herb with only medicinal properties.

I have about a month of sobriety under my belt. I still wake up most days after dreams where I spark a bowl or drop some acid thinking that sobriety is too much, that it isn’t doable, not for me. Continue reading Addicted to Weed? How I Suddenly Came to Realize the Truth →

Teens

New Discrete Cannabis Test Kit Helps Parents

Fighting the Good Fight Against Teen Drug Use

There’s no doubt that parents are the most powerful force in protecting and preparing children for the future. But these days, that job has become exponentially more confusing with the legalization of marijuana in many states and the subsequent arrival of a much more allusive, potent and dangerous variety that’s already flooding across state boarders. One thing has become clear: there’s no such thing as a harmless habit.

Marijuana is no stranger to most parents, but many are unaware of the way it’s being ingested these days and that it has 5x more THC than it did in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. Recent studies have concluded that it can even cause a permanent lowering of I.Q. for adolescents, along with a host of other problems which decrease the chances of having and enjoying a prosperous future. Continue reading New Discrete Cannabis Test Kit Helps Parents →

Colorado

Marijuana devastated Colorado, don’t legalize it nationally

by Jeff Hunt, an opinion published in USA Today on August 7, 2017.  Last week, Senator Cory Booker introduced the Marijuana Justice Act in an effort to legalize marijuana across the nation and penalize local communities that want nothing to do with this dangerous drug. This is the furthest reaching marijuana legalization effort to date and marks another sad moment in our nation’s embrace of a drug that will have generational consequences.

Our country is facing a drug epidemic. Legalizing recreational marijuana will do nothing that Senator Booker expects. We heard many of these same promises in 2012 when Colorado legalized recreational marijuana. Continue reading Marijuana devastated Colorado, don’t legalize it nationally →

Bursting the Bubble of Marijuana Hype