Separating Fact from Fiction on Marijuana

We have highlighted several resources produced by our friends at Focus on the Family intended to separate fact from fiction on marijuana.

Today we want to share a special  fact sheet from them regarding marijuana legalization.

The fact sheet includes data on:

  • Budget shortfalls on Colorado’s marijuana tax;
  • Rises in crime as well as driving under the influence of marijuana;
  • Rise in illicit drug consumption, both in Colorado and across the nation.

Most telling, perhaps, is the fact legalization has far from eliminated the black market for marijuana:

“The black market continues to thrive: The high taxes which are imposed on legal marijuana sales make the store-bought product more expensive than what can be purchased on the streets. Some former pot-shop owners are now operating illegally out of their vehicles for greater profit margins than before.”

You can download the entire fact sheet here.

A.G. Rejects Another Marijuana Measure

320px-Cannabis_PlantYesterday Attorney General Leslie Rutledge’s office rejected another ballot proposal legalizing marijuana.

The proposal by Mary Berry of Summit would amend the Arkansas Constitution to legalize “the cultivation, production, distribution, sale, possession, and use of the cannabis plant (genus cannabis) and all products derived from the cannabis plant” in Arkansas.

The amendment would allow adult individuals to grow up to 36 marijuana plants at a time, provided they first pay the state for a license to grow and use marijuana; it prevents the State of Arkansas from levying more than a five percent excise tax on marijuana; and it allows children to use marijuana for so-called “medical” purposes, provided the child has a “written recommendation” from a doctor.

It also releases all currently incarcerated prisoners whose only violation is a marijuana-related offense.

The amendment’s ballot title concludes, “Voters should note that the listed activities with respect to the cannabis plant are unlawful under federal law and that the amendment can have no effect on federal law.”

This proposal would write marijuana into Arkansas’ constitution. Like many past proposals, it lets people grow marijuana at home; and like virtually every marijuana law we know, it let’s children use “medical” marijuana with a doctor’s note despite the lack of evidence that marijuana is effective treating certain illnesses.

Just yesterday we shared a column about the negative effects of marijuana.

Marijuana has been shown to interfere with cognitive functions as well as portions of the brain that manage reward-responses and interpersonal relationships.

We have written before how under federal law marijuana cannot be prescribed by a doctor through a pharmacy–that’s why these proposals either legalize marijuana outright or make “medical” marijuana available with a note from a doctor rather than a prescription.

A growing body of scientific research says marijuana-use during younger years is associated with adult-onset schizophrenia.

Marijuana-related accidents are killing and injuring more and more Americans.

And far from quashing the black market, marijuana legalization seems to fuel illegal drug sales.

Allowing people to grow, use, and sell marijuana is reckless policy, plain and simple.

Photo Credit: “Cannabis Plant” by Cannabis Training University – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Created for Something Higher than Getting High

Our friends at the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview have published an excellent commentary on the negative effects of Marijuana-use.

John Stonestreet writes how, amid the national conversation about legalizing so-called “medical” and “recreational” Marijuana, one significant fact is being overlooked: Marijuana’s negative side-effects.

Stonestreet notes that, among other things:

  • 1 in 11 young adults who begins smoking Marijuana will become addicted;
  • Marijuana-use impairs working memory even when users are not acutely high;
  • Marijuana negatively impacts brain receptors involved in memory recall, metabolism regulation, and similar functions;

This commentary comes as news agencies in Arkansas report a young man shot himself playing Russian roulette after smoking Marijuana.

Marijuana advocates like to claim Marijuana has never killed anyone, but this is misleading; we have documented time and again how many people have died as a result of driving while high; as a result of heart attack or stroke caused by heavy Marijuana-use; and so on.

Claiming Marijuana did not kill these people is a little like blaming lung cancer for a smoker’s death while ignoring tobacco. There’s simply no doubt anymore. Marijuana is a dangerous substance.

Stonestreet concludes his commentary on this dangerous drug by writing,

“So if you don’t care about eating, learning, remembering things, forming healthy relationships or having a happy life, by all means, light up!  And, I should add, in light of all of these concerns, it’s reckless for policymakers and the voting public to jump on the weed bandwagon simply in the name of more ‘freedom’ and tax dollars.

“Friends, we were created for something higher than getting high.”

You can read Stonestreet’s full column here or listen to it below.

[audio:http://www.breakpoint.org/images/content/breakpoint/audio/2015/102615_BP.mp3|titles=Marijuana Madness by John Stonestreet]