The Science

 

Legalization will have a dangerous impact on the physical and mental health of Vermont’s children

Marijuana is harmful to children and adolescents.  Some of the negative consequences of marijuana use include:

  • A deleterious impact on brain development, both in structure and function[i]
  • Poorer working memory, visual scanning, and cognitive flexibility[ii], and decreased concentration, attention span, problem solving, motor control, coordination, judgment, reaction time, and tracking ability[iii]
    • These things greatly interfere with learning and can contribute to unintentional deaths and injuries[iv].
  • Reduced odds of high school completion and degree attainment, increased use of other illicit drugs and instances of suicide attempts[v].
  • Decreased IQ of eight points from adolescence to adulthood among heavy users of marijuana who started in adolescence[vi].  This drop is comparable to the decrease experienced by children who have high exposure to lead.     

Science is beginning to understand that adolescent brain development still occurs well into a person’s mid-20s, so even marijuana use into early adulthood can have long-term effects,[vii] even if undertaken during the post-legal age of 21. 

Research has shown that the younger an adolescent begins using drugs, including marijuana, the more likely it is that drug dependence or addiction will develop in adulthood[viii].

If marijuana is legalized, Vermont could expect 10,000 additional cannabis users, over 3,000 new Vermonters with cannabis disorder, and approximately 20 new cases of cannabis induced psychosis[ix].

Legalization will likely increase the number of Vermont children who use and abuse marijuana

In the first year of legalization in Colorado, the number of 12- to 17-year olds using marijuana in the past month increased by eight percent[x], while the number of probationers the same age testing for marijuana increased by 20 percent[xi].

In the first year of legalization in Colorado, college age Coloradans (ages 18-25) using marijuana in the past month increased by 11 percent to nearly 30 percent[xii].

According to a report released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Colorado had the nation’s largest increase in past month marijuana use rates among youth ages 12 to 17.  The same report also found that Colorado’s past month marijuana use rates among youth ages 12 to 17 jumped from the third highest in the country to the first during that same timeframe.[xiii].

Proponents of legalization say that regulating it will help keep it out of hands of youth and adolescents, but regulation certainly hasn’t prevented underage drinking.  

Sixty-nine percent of Vermont high school students say alcohol – a highly regulated substance – is sort of or very easy to get.  That’s seven percentage points higher than marijuana. [a]   The idea that regulating marijuana will make it harder for youth and adolescents to access is simply not supported by the data or the state’s experience with alcohol.  Today in Vermont, a regulated substance is easier to get than an illegal one, supporting the idea that the more a substance is out there in society, the easier it is to find it’s way to underage users.   

And if our experience with alcohol is any indication, while marijuana will start out in a regulated environment, it won’t stay that way.  Sixty-four percent of Vermont high school students say they get alcohol from either someone giving it to them (40%) or by giving someone else money to buy it (24%). [b] 

Decriminalization of marijuana has already accomplished the worthy goal of ending the social injustices that were often present with past marijuana law enforcement. 

With decriminalization we have fixed 80 percent of the harm from over-reacting to marijuana use, without sending the message to kids that marijuana is harmless. We simply don’t believe that any small, potential benefit from legalization is worth sending the wrong message to kids.

The number of marijuana possession charges in Vermont declined 94.8 percent between 2013, when marijuana was decriminalized, and 2015.  In 2015, a total of 59 people were charged with marijuana possession, compared to 1,146 in 2013. [c]   

In conjunction with prevention education and treatment, the American Academy of Pediatrics strongly supports research and development of pharmaceutical cannabinoids, decriminalization and moving cannabis from a DEA Schedule I drug to a DEA Schedule II.  

Legalization will put the safety of all Vermonters at risk

When marijuana was legalized in Colorado, marijuana-related traffic deaths spiked dramatically:

  • In the year that retail marijuana stores began operating in Colorado (2014), the state experienced a 32-percent increase in marijuana-related traffic deaths[xiv]
  • The average number of marijuana-related traffic deaths in Colorado in the two years recreational marijuana was legalized (2013-14) was 39 percent higher than the average number of marijuana-related traffic deaths in the previous four years (2009-12)[xv].

One of the biggest concerns about legalized marijuana is that testing for drivers under its influence is difficult and inconsistent:

  • According to a National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration funded a study, “THC move(s) more rapidly than alcohol out of the bloodstream and into the body, making it harder to detect accurately with a blood test.” [xvi]
  • The Vermont State Police’s Lieutenant Garry Scott told AAPVT that “One of the issues we run into is how testing is conducted, it is complicated and inconsistent between states.”
  • In testimony recently provided to the Vermont Senate Judiciary Committee, Bennington Police Chief Paul Doucette, head of the Vermont Association of Chiefs of Police, stated that Vermont currently has only 34 trained Drug Recognition Experts, while 11 more are currently in training.  Chief Doucette told the committee “law enforcement in the state is not prepared for the number of people who are going to be driving under the influence (of marijuana) in Vermont.”

With Vermont’s health care system already being overwhelmed by one rampant drug problem, it lacks the capacity to respond to a new one

Vermont is already in the throes of one drug epidemic, and certainly can’t afford to start another one.  

  • 55 people in Vermont died from opiate overdoses during the first nine months of 2015, only three shy of the most ever in one year, which was 58 in 2013[xxi].  It’s likely that once the stats for 2015 are finalized, the year will be the deadliest for drug overdose deaths in history.
  • In December of 2015, Gov. Shumlin said there were 427 Vermonters on opioid addiction treatment waiting lists[xxii].

Vermont already faces a severe shortage of inpatient psychiatric beds, with some patients forced to wait in hospital emergency rooms for up to 20 days until an appropriate psychiatric bed can be found for them[xxiii].

The states that have legalized marijuana have seen more problems and fewer benefits, such as tax revenue, than expected

The director of the Colorado Governor’s Office of Marijuana Coordination has been quoted as saying that tax revenue generated through legalization will largely go to the cost of legalization.  “You do not legalize for taxation. It is a myth. You are not going to pave streets. You are not going to be able to pay teachers. The big red herring is the whole thing that the tax revenue will solve a bunch of crises. But it won’t.”[xxiv]

Colorado expected legalization to generate $118 million in taxes, but had to revised projections to $69 million[xxv].  An excise tax on marijuana was projected to raise $40 million for schools in 2014, but instead it only generated about one-third of that amount[xxvi].

Marijuana is becoming more and more dangerous, and giving the state’s “approval” of its use won’t help

As perceived risk goes down, marijuana use goes up[xxvii], suggesting that legalizing it would send the message that it is a safe and “ok” thing to do.

Marijuana is getting stronger and stronger – the potency of seized marijuana in the U.S. increased 201 percent from 1998 to 2008[xxviii] – exacerbating negative health and public safety impacts.

The proliferation of edible marijuana in states that have legalized it signal a real health hazard, especially for children.  Candies, sodas, desserts, even butter infused with marijuana increase the chance of accidental ingestion from children and adolescents.  At one hospital in particular, the first four months of legal retail marijuana in Colorado saw nine children treated for marijuana ingestion, while it saw nine incidents in all of 2013[xxix].

Additional Resources

[i] Pediatrics. The Impact of Marijuana Policies on Youth: Clinical, Research, and Legal Update, Technical Report, March 2015

[ii] Medina KL, Hanson KL, Schweinsburg AD, Cohen-Zion M, Nagel BJ, Tapert SF   

[iii] Schweinsburg AD, Nagel BJ, Schweinsburg BC, Park A, Theilmann RJ, Tapert SF. Abstinent adolescent marijuana users show altered fMRI response during spatial working memory. Psychiatry Res. 2008;163(1): 40–51

[iv] Pediatrics. The Impact of Marijuana Policies on Youth: Clinical, Research, and Legal Update, March 2015

[v] Silins E, Horwood LJ, Patton GC, et al. Young adult sequelae of adolescent cannabis use: an integrative analysis. Lancet Psychiatry. 2014;1(4):286–293. Available at: www.thelancet.com/ journals/a/article/PIIS2215-0366(14) 70307-4/fulltext. Accessed September 10, 2014

[vi] Meier et al., PNAS, 2012

[vii] Pediatrics. The Impact of Marijuana Policies on Youth: Clinical, Research, and Legal Update, Technical Report, March 2015

[viii] Schepis TS, Adinoff B, Rao U. Neurobiological processes in adolescent addictive disorders. Am J Addict. 2008;17 (1):6–23.

[ix] David C. Rettew, M.D. The Health Effects and Social Policy of Marijuana Nov. 2015

[x] SAMHSA.gov, National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 2006–2013

[xi] State of Colorado Judicial Branch, Division of Probation Services

[xii] SAMHSA.gov, National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 2006–2013

[xiii] Rand Corporation. Considering Marijuana Legalization, 2015: 121

[xiv] Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. The legalization of marijuana in Colorado: the impact. September 2015

[xv] Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. The legalization of marijuana in Colorado: the impact. September 2015

[xvi] Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. The legalization of marijuana in Colorado: the impact. September 2015

[xvii] SAMHSA.gov, National Survey on Drug Use and Health 2012 and 2013

[xviii] Hughes, A., Lipari, R.N., & Williams, M. The CBHSQ Report: State Estimates of Adolescent Marijuana Use and Perceptions of Risk of Harm From Marijuana Use: 2013 and 2014.  http://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/report_2121/ShortReport-2...

[xix] Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. The legalization of marijuana in Colorado: the impact. September 2015

[xx] Children’s Hospital Colorado. Accessed at http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/call7-investigators/greater-access-.... May 5, 2014

[xxi] VTDigger. Schulman calls for expanded access to addiction treatment drugs. Dec. 15, 2015.

[xxii] VTDigger. Schulman calls for expanded access to addiction treatment drugs. Dec. 15, 2015.

[xxiii] Vermont Medical Society. Green Mountain Physician. Shortage of mental health beds reaches crisis levels in Vermont. June 2015

[xxiv] Bob McGovern, BostonHerald.com, June 12, 2015, “Colorado weed czar: Revenue up in smoke,” <http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2015/06/colorado..., accessed June 15, 2015

[xxv] Josh Barro, The New York Times, April 9, 2015, “Marijuana Taxes Won’t Save State Budgets,” <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/09/upshot/09up-marijuana.html?_r=0>, accessed April 13, 2015

[xxvi] The Gazette Op/Ed, March 22, 2015, “No tax windfall from medical, retail sales,” <http://gazette.com/no-tax-windfal-from-medical-retail-sales/article/1548..., accessed April 2, 2015

[xxvii] University of Michigan, 2013 Monitoring Future Study

[xxviii] University of Mississippi, National Center for Natural Products Research, Potency Monitoring Project Quarterly Report 107. January 2010

[xxix] Children’s Hospital Colorado. Accessed at http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/call7-investigators/greater-access-.... May 5, 2014

 [a] Vermont Health Department 2015 Youth Risk Behavior Survey. http://healthvermont.gov/research/yrbs/2015/documents/2015_yrbs_highscho...

 [b] Vermont Health Department 2015 Youth Risk Behavior Survey. http://healthvermont.gov/research/yrbs/2015/documents/2015_yrbs_highscho...

 [c] Court Adjudication Database maintained by Crime Research Group, Inc.

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