In short, I don’t think it’s such a good idea to legalize marijuana. I know it brings big tax dollars to the state, but what are its hidden costs to the state and its residents?
If the research on marijuana and mind body reaction time slowing is true, the state’s automobile accident rates will increase from more people driving stoned.
That means more fatal and debilitating accidents and more hardship for people who are victims of “high drivers.”
Higher accident rates will contribute to higher health care costs, which in turn will lead to higher insurance costs, which will trickle down to affecting people’s pocketbooks so they have less to spend in the marketplace. Less sales tax to the state?
How many overdoses are we going to see in young children who think “pot edibles” are candy they can sneak and eat?
How many people over 40 will have heart attacks from the tachycardia that can be triggered after smoking pot?
How many teens will get triggered into schizophrenia or panic disorders that otherwise may have laid dormant?
How many more ski accidents for skiers skiing high and not being able to turn quickly enough?
How many people will be self-medicating emotional pain instead of resolving it and growing in emotional maturity?
How many parents will be psychologically absent at home when they are physically present and high, contributing to their children’s little t trauma accumulating (from emotional abandonment) and affecting their emotional development?
How many people will develop health problems because there is no quality control in the industry?
If what they say about marijuana negatively affecting the “executive functioning in a brain” is true, how many businesses, schools, places of work, and homes will be affected by someone not functioning well? And how will that in turn affect others? What are those hidden emotional and financial costs?
So our jails may be less crowded, our courts may be less crowded, our pot sales tax will increase, more people will get high and think they are having a grand old time because pot triggers the pleasure center of the brain sending out messages that sound and look a lot like, “I am feeling real gooooooood.” But are they really feeling soooooo gooood or will their mind be tricking them? And will they then be going after that soooo gooood feeling they experienced on pot instead of climbing a 14er, solving a problem, having an intimate conversation, connecting with someone else on a meaningful level…..
It will be a great business boon for treatment centers in the state. They will see more people coming in for marijuana addiction. Yes there is marijuana addiction and it is alive, well, and growing….
Is it right, as a society, to legalize something we know is harmful to people’s health and well being…? That is a question for you to personally decide.