Legalizing marijuana has been touted as an economic opportunity, with an emphasis on promoting social equity and fiscal empowerment, especially for individuals affected by arrest and imprisonment for marijuana-related crimes.
On the financial front, it’s worked – the weed business in Massachusetts is a multi-billion-dollar enterprise.
But as communities who’ve given the high sign to weed have learned, there’s a downside – one that is all but ignored as more states mull cannabis legislation and Capitol Hill lawmakers work to grease the skids.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) coauthored the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act (CAOA), which would end the federal prohibition on cannabis.
In a statement Thursday, Schumer remarked “We were encouraged to see the SAFE Banking Act reintroduced last week after Senator Daines and Senator Merkley worked to make key improvements to the legislation. These improvements include the extension of the safe harbour to Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) and Minority Depository Institutions (MDI) to ensure that small and minority-owned businesses can access the capital they need to start and maintain successful cannabis-related businesses and give people with income from legal cannabis business access to federally-backed mortgages.”
What’s not mentioned: The rise in car crashes and fatalities after marijuana laws were passed.
A study last summer by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found the rate of car crashes with injuries increased by nearly 6%, while fatal crashes rose by 4%. No increase in these crashes was seen in states that hadn’t legalized marijuana.
“Marijuana, like alcohol and just about every other drug, changes how you feel and how you behave. That’s the purpose of a drug. And that changes how you drive. We all need to realize that driving after using marijuana is a bad idea,” lead researcher Charles Farmer told U.S. News and World Report.
Many have called for awareness and education programs to keep buzzed drivers from getting behind the wheel. But after years of “Don’t Drink and Drive” PSAs, about 36 people in the United States die in drunk-driving crashes ever day — that’s one person every 39 minutes, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Also in the “con” column, a study found that accidental consumption of marijuana edibles, such as brownies and gummies, among children under the age of 6 has surged in recent years as more states have legalized the recreational use of pot, as the New York Times reported. The study published in the journal Pediatrics found that there had been a “consistent increase in pediatric edible cannabis exposures over the past five years, with the potential for significant toxicity.”
We’ve seen such incidents in Massachusetts.
States considering decriminalizing weed need to tap the brakes and look at the impact this has had on other jurisdictions before passing laws green-lighting cannabis. Economic gain can’t come at communities’ expense.
