Illinois Family Institute continues to highlight overwhelming evidence of the costs and consequences of legal high-potency marijuana, but too many of us are either dismissing or ignoring the ramifications. We simply do not understand what this policy means for families, communities, schools, workplaces, and roadways. And many who have lost loved ones to addiction or worse know all too well.
Marijuana has been a Schedule I Drug since 1971 when THC levels in the drug were at 1-3 percent. Even back then, it was widely understood that there were no medical benefits and the potential of addiction was high. The Biden Administration wants marijuana reclassified as a Schedule III drug, which would designate it as having medical benefits. Needless to say, this move will allow the marijuana business to flourish.
There’s a lot of money being made in marijuana. The tax revenue alone is enormous, which is why Big Marijuana followed Big Tobacco’s playbook and sold it first as medicine.
Most medical groups still claim there are no medical benefits. In the past, the American Medical Association opposed medical marijuana, but now they’re fully on board. No surprise there, since the so-called medical association also supports doing surgeries to remove healthy body parts in children so that boys can “become” girls.
Today’s marijuana is 10 times stronger than it was 50 years ago. But because it’s a plant and plant characteristics vary, it’s difficult to come up with a definitive number. Twenty percent THC is considered high potency, but it’s readily available with much higher THC levels in concentrates.
Now the federal government is poised to reclassify it from Schedule I to Schedule III.
Take ACTION: Click HERE to express your opposition to Biden’s rescheduling of marijuana on the Federal Register.
MORE ACTION: Click HERE to send a message to the White House, U.S. Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, and your U.S. Representative to let them know you oppose any legislative effort to reschedule, decriminalize, or foster the use and sale of high-potency THC marijuana in our culture.
The evidence of harm couldn’t be clearer. This crazy social experiment started in Colorado, California, and Washington. Marijuana is now legal in 21 other states.
Consider our top 10 reasons we continue to oppose legal weed in Illinois and why we oppose the rescheduling of marijuana at the federal level.
10 Reasons to Oppose High Potency Marijuana Rescheduling
1.) Marijuana Use Can Lead to Addiction. It’s Not Your Daddy’s Weed!
The TCH (tetrahydrocannabinol) levels in today’s marijuana products are much higher than the marijuana of the 60s and 70s. High-potency marijuana is four times more addictive than low-potency is. This high-THC content has been linked to an increase in serious mental health issues and addiction.
A Cambridge University study found that the use of today’s high-THC products among youth was associated with a higher risk of psychotic disorders. The rate of addiction when starting before age 18 is 1 in 6.
There is alarmingly high THC content in marijuana concentrates (oil, wax, dab, shatter).
What we don’t need are more drug addicts.
2.) Increased Risk of Psychosis and Alarming Youth Suicide (p31); more here.
A Psychology Today article states that the increase in THC potency parallels rising cases of addiction and mental health issues.
A recent article published in The Lancet Psychiatry examined 20 studies. “Overall, use of higher potency cannabis, relative to lower potency cannabis, was associated with an increased risk of psychosis and CUD (cannabis use disorder or addiction).”
What we don’t need are more mentally ill drug addicts.
3.) Increased Cannabis-Involved ER Visits and Poison Control Center Calls.
The CDC reported, “Cannabis-involved ED visits began increasing statistically significantly among all age groups except 15–24 years several years before the pandemic, potentially as a result of expanding state-level policies legalizing cannabis use.”
Dr. Karen Randall, an ER physician and a resident of Pueblo, Colorado, testified how legal weed has negatively affected her hospital and community. Watch and listen to what she has to say here.
4.) Increased Marijuana-Related Exposures in Children 0-5 Years Old.
Washington state has a huge problem with calls to poison centers, the majority involving children.
Illinois saw a significant increase in marijuana-related incidents in children. Calls to the poison control center increased from 81 in 2019 to 278 in 2021 for children under 5. (Legal recreational marijuana went into effect on January 1, 2020.)
5.) Increased Violent Crime; more here.
The American Journal of Psychiatry, after screening 11,348 potential studies, yielding a total of 296,815 adolescents and young adults found, “Cannabis use in this population is a risk factor for violence.”
There are numerous accounts of crimes committed when the perpetrator was high on marijuana here.
6.) Cognitive Effects of Long-Term Use; more here.
Medical research has revealed altered brain activity in young adults with cannabis addiction. The findings suggest a mechanism that explains why the risk of depression and other mental health issues is higher among those who use the drug. Read more here from the American Addiction Centers website.
7.) Increase in Homelessness.
An increase in homelessness seems to be a growing problem in states that legalized marijuana.
One-third of homeless jail inmates came to Colorado because of legal marijuana.
8.) Permanent Loss of IQ in Adolescents.
Marijuana can cause permanent IQ loss of as much as 8 points when people start using it at a young age. These IQ points do not come back, even after quitting marijuana.
A study has found individuals who used marijuana at least once a week during adolescence showed a reduction in IQ at age 38.
9.) Increased Marijuana-Related Traffic Deaths (p9); more here.
A 2021 Insurance Institute for Highway Safety article stated, “The most recent of these studies from IIHS shows that injury and fatal crash rates in California, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington jumped in the months following the relaxation of marijuana laws in each state.”
10.) Increased Social and Economic Costs Outweigh Tax Revenue by $4.50 to every $1; more here and here.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City published a research paper on the economic benefits to the social costs of legalization.
They found “[p]ost-legalization, average state income per capita grew by 3 percent, house prices by 6 percent, and population by 2 percent. However, substance use disorders, chronic homelessness, and arrests increased by 17, 35, and 13 percent, respectively.”
Given the facts above, you can see how the social costs for the state’s first responders, welfare system, health care system, traffic fatalities, violent crime, increased use in all age categories, and addiction – are costs Illinois cannot afford to take on.
Looking at this issue from the 30,000-foot viewpoint, we cannot help but think that the powers that be want our focus on ways to get self-gratification, like getting high, so we aren’t paying attention to what they’re doing.
It brings to mind God’s warning on remaining sober because our enemy is out to destroy us.
Watch more:
Please visit the IFI YouTube channel and this playlist of 36 videos (and growing) dedicated to the opposition of marijuana legalization.
Read more:
Thinking Biblically About Recreational Marijuana
Medical Doctor from Peoria Opposes Legal Pot
ER Doc Says “Recreational” Pot Has Ruined My Town
IFI Resource Page on Marijuana
