Pubdate: Wed, 25 Mar 2015
Source: Gazette, The (Colorado Springs, CO)
Copyright: 2015 The Gazette
Contact: http://www.gazette.com/sections/opinion/submitletter/
Website: http://www.gazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/165
Series: Special report, 'Clearing the Haze:'

FIX COLORADO'S POT PROBLEMS

Today concludes The Gazette's four-part perspective on the world's 
boldest public policy experiment with commercialized recreational and 
medical pot.

The Gazette created a special project team made up of editorial staff 
and a seasoned reporter to look into these claims and compare them to 
information compiled after a year of legal recreational marijuana 
sales in Colorado. We wanted to examine whether claims of 
legalization are on a path to realization. We also looked for stories 
that have not been reported to create a clearer picture of the state 
of the industry.

Since publication began Sunday, the series has ignited controversy 
across social media platforms and generated media interest. The 
Gazette has received letters from all over the country. About 95 
percent of emails to The Gazette have expressed appreciation, with 
the majority emanating from professionals in addiction treatment and medicine.

Much of our research revealed a disturbing trajectory that could have 
a increasingly negative effect on Colorado.

Among highlights of our findings:

- - Coloradans voted to regulate and tax marijuana like alcohol, but 
the regulatory system is flawed. Tax revenues have underwhelmed 
expectations, as Colorado residents opt for barely taxed "medical" 
marijuana that can be obtained by paying a small fee and complaining 
of aches or pain.

- - Easy access to low-cost medical pot has created a black market that 
circumvents a commercial system promised to help fund schools. The 
promised prevention efforts have fallen short, blurring lines between 
public information and taxpayer-subsidized promotion of marijuana.

- - Marijuana consumption may shrink parts of the teenage brain.

- - Legalization has made laws against driving under the influence more 
difficult to enforce.

- - The black market is thriving in Colorado, even though legalization 
was promised as a means to shut it down. The low risk-reward factor 
has made Colorado an attractive location for cultivating marijuana 
that is sold illegally out of state. Despite legalization, most 
marijuana sold within Colorado is sold illegally by black-market 
dealers. Nonregulated dealers benefit from a lack of enforcement 
against cultivation while also benefiting from avoidance of the taxes 
and regulatory hurdles that were supposed to make the trade safe.

- - Voters were told legalization would unclog prisons and jails. 
Research shows only 1.4 percent of inmates in the corrections system 
were convicted on crimes involving only marijuana.

- - Authorities have seen a near tripling of hash-oil explosions since 
legalization of hash-oil extraction.

- - The commercialized, recreational and medical retail systems have 
taken a disproportionate toll on teens and younger children. Schools, 
parents and drug counselors report significantly higher use among 
teens. Physicians are increasingly worried about the effects of 
marijuana on nursing babies with mothers who use the drug.

- - Employers report hiring more out-of-state construction workers 
because of the high rate of positive drug tests among the in-state workforce.

- - Doctors, the Society of Addiction Medicine and other medical 
associations see no medicinal value in marijuana. By any serious, 
objective observation - with few exceptions - Colorado's growing 
medical marijuana industry mostly serves as a means of marijuana tax 
avoidance for permanent residents.

If marijuana proponents want the drug safe, regulated, taxed and 
legal they will take a more realistic look at a new system that has 
let people down. When tens of thousands of nonmarijuana users voted 
for Amendment 64, they did so to end black markets. They voted to 
generate money for schools. They voted for more safety, not less. The 
state, and the industry it regulates, need to fix a system that's 
broken. Otherwise, voters need to undo Amendment 64.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom