With Kansas legislators feeling increasingly pressured to legalize marijuana for either medicinal or recreational use, its potential economic impact should come a distant second to its potential risks to our health.
According to health experts, todays weed is 10-15 times as potent as that of a generation ago, as measured by the amount of THC, the chemical responsible for the drugs psychoactive effect, it contains. The difference is a more potent high that takes immediate effect and lasts longer. Symptoms may include impaired function (dont drive when high), as well as an inability to stay focused.
And to be clear, marijuana is a drug just like opiates and alcohol, and as such can be abused to great detriment, including addiction.
Because of its increased strength, experts say new-found health risks associated with marijuana include an increase of psychosis and schizophrenia. A predominate, and often ridiculed, side effect of marijuana use is increased paranoia, harmless by itself. But for those who experience psychotic disorders, the added state can fuel violent behavior.
Lobbying efforts to legalize marijuana concentrate on its purported healing properties. As a society, medical experts have yet to give a definitive answer as to its benefits, but a growing body says marijuana shows promise for treating medical conditions including pain, muscle spasms, seizures, nausea from cancer treatments, and post traumatic stress disorder.
BECAUSE THERE is still so much to find out about marijuana, it would behoove Kansas legislators to take their time to learn all the facts before opening a door on marijuana that would be infinitely harder to close.
