A bill moving through the legislature would add Minnesota to the 21 states that have legalized recreational marijuana, following state lawmakers’ haphazard legalization of cannabis-infused edibles in July of last year. Unlike other states that have legalized recreational marijuana, Minnesota’s bill would not allow local communities to opt-out. Section 13 of the nearly 250-page bill prohibits local governments from banning possession or sale of marijuana, imposing the drug on the entire state, including in communities that are opposed to it.
Although it is often portrayed as harmless, marijuana is associated with a host of risk factors for public health, and legalization has come with adverse consequences in the states that have embraced it. However well-meaning, legalization does not solve the problems it claims to solve and is likely to be harmful to children, families, and entire communities.
Beginning with the harm caused to individual users, cannabis use has been linked to cardiac complications, an increased risk of suicide, psychosis, and schizophrenia. These affects are especially concerning among young people, with the New York Times reporting that,
In addition to uncontrollable vomiting and addiction, adolescents who frequently use high doses of cannabis may also experience psychosis that could possibly lead to lifelong psychiatric disorder, an increased likelihood of developing depression and suicidal ideation, changes in brain anatomy and connectivity and poor memory.
The past 20 years have seen a dramatic increase in potency, with the concentration of THC, the component in marijuana that makes the user “high,” tripling in commonly cultivated marijuana. Dr. Keith Humphreys, a Stanford University professor who has been involved in drug policy as a researcher and former White House advisor, compared the effects of “old cannabis” and “new cannabis” saying,
When users had acute toxic reactions to old [lower THC] cannabis and came into the emergency room, it looked like a panic attack. Unpleasant, to be sure, but the person had not lost touch with reality as in psychotic reaction. In the age of new [higher THC] cannabis, the risk for acute psychotic reactions is much higher—we can see that in E.R. data both in the U.S. and Europe.
Adults who may have tried a small amount of marijuana while in college and concluded that legalization “isn’t a big deal” were taking a much lower potency drug than what is being used by a growing number of teenagers and young adults today.
Legalization is tied to increased use, not only among young adults, but also among adolescents. In states that have legalized marijuana, monthly use among 18-25-year-olds is roughly three times the rate of use in states where it is still banned.
Even when laws are in place limiting the age at which a person can legally use marijuana, legalization sends kids the message that marijuana is safe. A study from December found a 245% increase in marijuana use among adolescents over the past 20 years, with the most significant increase occurring from 2017-2020, coinciding with a wave of marijuana legalization across the country. Another study found that the rate of children overdosing on marijuana is 2.8 times higher in states where the drug is legal.
The harm to children goes beyond accidental ingestion or intentional use on their part. Use by a caregiver significantly compromises a child’s safety, and even endangers their lives. More than one state has found that roughly half of child deaths that occurred under caregivers were related to drug or alcohol use, and the most frequently identified substance in those cases was marijuana. Alex Berenson, an investigative journalist and author of Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence, pointed out in response to these findings, “Once again, researchers who weren’t looking for evidence that cannabis was linked to violence found it anyway.”
Some advocates of legalization insist that it is a necessary reform to the criminal justice system. But upon scrutiny, these arguments begin to crumble. The evidence simply does not support the argument that keeping marijuana illegal is leading to widespread injustice and overincarceration. Only about one percent of federal prisoners and less than 4% of state prisoners are held on simple possession charges. As Steve Malanga pointed out in City Journal, most of those jailed for drug-related charges are dealers, and people who are held on marijuana charges are almost always kept because of an outstanding warrant for other crimes. Marijuana legalization is not the path to meaningful reform to the criminal justice system, and if anything, it distracts from identifying truly necessary areas of reform.
Instead of being a reform that brings about justice, marijuana legalization has proven harmful to the communities that have tried it and has worsened the plight of vulnerable people in those communities, including those struggling with mental illness, homelessness, addiction, or all three. The direct harm to children and adolescents alone ought to be more than enough reason to pause before rushing to pass this legislation.
