Cannabis and Colorado

by Gabriel Sanchez


Photo courtesy of Youtube, user Dinafem Seeds

Colorado, voters legalized recreational marijuana and the sales are specially taxed by the state. While there was a big controversy over whether the plant should be legalized in the first place, there is a big issue that stemmed from this.

While federally marijuana remains illegal, the revenue that the legalization has generated is huge. Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper told USA Today in Feburary 2015 that "the people who were smoking marijuana before legalization still are. Now, they're paying taxes."

But the moral issue that has popped up is that the state’s citizenry wants to use the money for public works projects; the one coming into question is schools.

Since 2014, the money from the marijuana is going to fund school projects in certain schools. In some cases, grant money that comes from the marijuana taxes is used to fix up aging schools and bring them up to standard on building codes. In Morgan County, which is northeast of the state’s capital, Denver, marijuana money was used to replace an entire middle school.

Funding for school health professionals such as school nurses, psychologists, and counselors has suffered historically. In late 2014, the state set aside money so that these professionals could be funded, thus allowing to have higher staffing at schools throughout the state.

But here comes the dilemma. As money comes from marijuana to help schools, students continue to be told that marijuana is bad for them and that they should not be smoking it.

The American Psychological Association in their 122nd Annual Convention in 2014 discussed the possible effects of how marijuana legalization could affect the American public. The APA reported that “frequent marijuana use can have a significant negative effect on the brains of teenagers and young adults, including cognitive decline, poor attention and memory, and decreased IQ."

In the same conference, Dr. Krista Lisdahl, the Director of Brain Imaging and Neuropsychology Lab (the BraIN Lab) at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, said that THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, a psychoactive chemical found in marijuana, can affect brain growth development.

Lisdahl and her team found in a 2012 study that THC has been shown to affect brain structure, especially among adolescents, who undergo significant brain development until about age 25.

THC has also been know to increase the risk of mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and psychosis.

The team saw this increase in 16 to 19 year olds who used more marijuana in the past year. The area that saw the abnormalities was the grey matter, which is associated with intelligence. In the study, the team found that the results remained the same after the team controlled people with preexisting major medical conditions, learning disabilities, developmental delays, and prenatal drug exposure.

So the question remains as to what we should tell our kids. If children are being taught that drugs are bad in school and that they should not use them, but their schools are being built by marijuana, that certainly is a conflicting message.

Perhaps we need to rethink how we teach our children about drugs. Historically, local law enforcement agencies introduced the D.A.R.E. program to schools. The aim of D.A.R.E., or Drug Abuse Resistance Education, was to educate students on the negative effects of drugs and gangs, and to act as a relationship builder between police and youth. While the community relations aspect was successful, the other two (gang and drug prevention) were not.

Researchers note that it is important that THC levels be regulated in order to try and reduce the neurocognitive effects. Alan Budney, PhD of the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College, and specializing as a professor of psychiatry, has noted that different forms of legalized marijuana have varying levels of THC.

The potency of THC has changed over time. Budney noted that “unfortunately, much of what we know from earlier research is based on smoking marijuana with much lower doses of THC than are commonly used today."

Lisdahl noted in the same conference that it was important that “policymakers need to address ways to prevent easy access to marijuana and provide additional treatment funding for adolescent and young adult users.”

This seems like a great idea on paper. In Colorado, you must be 21 or older to possess an ounce of marijuana or substance containing THC. In many states, one must be 21 or older to purchase alcohol. The same thought runs through my head: how is a state going to enforce underage possession and consumption of marijuana if they cannot effectively do it for alcohol?

The War on Drugs, while well-intentioned, has been a total consumer of money and has not been that successful long term. Many people have died during the campaign, and drugs continue to follow many countries’ borders. Demand for drugs has created heavily armed criminal organizations that control much of Mexico and parts of America’s towns and cities.

As marijuana legalization seems to becoming more and more popular, maybe the message we should be suggesting is moderation. We try and promote moderation with alcohol, and found in the small print of beer ads are the words “enjoy responsibly." I am in no way suggesting that we should tell youth that they should use marijuana. 

However, if youth are interested, they more than likely will experiment with it. Perhaps the message we should send is do not use marijuana, but if you do, do not over consume it, as it can be harmful in large amount, and when used frequently.