As state after state moves to legalize either the medicinal and/or recreational use of marijuana, proponents of marijuana continue to claim that marijuana is harmless. They claim that using marijuana for medicinal purposes has proven to be beneficial to thousands of people with various health conditions. As for recreational use of marijuana, they say it’s more harmless than smoking cigarettes and poses no health threats.

However, the longer marijuana is being legally used, the more dangers and risks it is found to be associated.

When it was first legalized for recreational use in Colorado, it had a devastating impact on some people. Levy Thamba Pongi died after eating marijuana cookies and then jumping off a balcony, plunging to his death. Richard Kirk had eaten some marijuana products, began hallucinating and ended up killing his wife. Luke Goodman reportedly killed himself after eating marijuana products. Daniel Juarez ate some marijuana products and then stabbed himself 20 times, killing himself.

After marijuana was legalized in Colorado, it was reported:

“The Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area’s third annual report, released on Monday, showed the effects of legal marijuana in that state, including a 32 percent jump in marijuana-related traffic fatalities, big increases in emergency-room visits and hospitalizations, and greater pot usage by youths age 12 to 17.

The report, generated by the agency funded through the National Office of Drug Control Policy, also showed 40 percent more school expulsions, most of them marijuana related, since 2008; greater exposure of young children to the drug; a 2,000 percent increase in the number of Colorado mail parcels intercepted destined for other states; and 32 marijuana extraction-lab explosions in 2014.”

In December 2016, it was reported that a medical condition was landing many marijuana users in the emergency room. Repeated, long-term use was causing a condition known as cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome (CHS) which caused severe nausea and vomiting.

In April 2018, it was reported:

Cannabis is responsible for 91 per cent of cases where teenagers end up being treated for drug addiction, shocking new figures reveal…

• Over the past decade, the number of under-18s treated for cannabis abuse in England has jumped 40 per cent – from 9,043 in 2006 to 12,712 in 2017;
• Treatment for all narcotics has increased by 20 per cent – up from 11,618 to 13,961;
• The proportion of juvenile drug treatment for cannabis use is up from four in five cases (78 per cent) to nine in ten (91 per cent);
• There has been a ‘sharp increase’ in cocaine use among 15-year-olds, up 56 per cent from 16,700 in 2014 to 26,200 in 2016.

If that isn’t enough to prove that marijuana use is NOT harmless, then consider a recent report that adds to the list of growing negative impacts of marijuana use:

“Weed use is taking off as more states move to legalize it. And with all the buzz over medical marijuana, it’s starting to gain an aura of healthfulness. But there are some serious health risks associated with frequent use. One of the more troubling ones is the risk of having a psychotic episode.”

“Several past studies have found that more frequent use of pot is associated with a higher risk of psychosis, that is, when someone loses touch with reality. Now a new study published Tuesday in the The Lancet Psychiatry shows that consuming pot on a daily basis and especially using high potency cannabis increases the odds of having a psychotic episode later.”

“‘This is more evidence that the link between cannabis and psychosis matters,’ says Krista M. Lisdahl, a clinical neuropsychologist at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, who wasn’t involved in the study.”

Many of these negative impacts were not known when the first state laws legalizing marijuana use, but within just a few years, a number of negative impacts are being discovered. Marijuana is NOT harmless and should never be legalized for recreational use. I understand the need for medicinal use, but those people using marijuana products need to be closely watched by their family and doctors.