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Letter: Legalized pot will bring problems

The Columbian
Published: March 17, 2013, 5:00pm

The Colorado Springs news outlet CBS4 reported on March 6 that a prominent local drug testing company, Conspire, has documented a spike in children using pot following the passage of Colorado’s Amendment 64.

Conspire is now receiving requests for drug testing from school districts on a weekly basis, not monthly as before. One high school student states, “I’ve seen a lot more people just walking down the street smoking joints.” Conspire staff are finding unprecedented levels of THC in kids: “a typical kid is between 50 and 100 nanograms. Now we’re seeing these up in the over 500, 700, 800.” Jo McGuire of Conspire describes the danger to the human brain: “In the past we’ve used the term stoner or fried … because you literally take your brain and you rob it of the ability to fire the way it’s supposed to.” McGuire expresses alarm that these stoned high school kids are driving after school.

Exposure to even small amounts of pot in kids is associated with schizophrenia. Furthermore, sufferers from mental illness, including adults, who smoke pot counteract their anti-psychotic drugs, risking a mental illness crisis.

Washington voters will soon recognize the error we made legalizing this “recreational” substance.

Ann T. Donnelly

Vancouver

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