From coal mining operations to tobacco companies to all manner of polluting industries, there is a long, long list of enterprises that have been run by greedy people who care more about profits than the health and welfare of their fellow citizens.
So, why should the marijuana industry be any different?
In 2012, Washington voters legalized cannabis in this state and, very quickly, the cannabis industry sprouted like a field of well-fertilized marijuana plants. Legalization came about because of the absurdity of arresting people for growing, selling and possessing a recreational drug that was so commonly used by so many people with so little serious harm.
Unfortunately, the pot entrepreneurs were not content with merely selling the groovy grass that so many of us remember from our younger days. To increase sales and profits, they needed to innovate and come up with new variations of their product. And that is where greed has overridden social responsibility.
Now, a person can go to a pot shop and buy products that have a THC concentration of nearly 100%. That potency is vastly greater than the 15% THC concentration in an actual marijuana plant — modern plants that already have a bigger kick than the comparatively tame weed that gave a buzz to denizens of Haight Ashbury back in 1967’s Summer of Love.
Abundant medical and scientific evidence indicates that frequent marijuana users of all ages are often experiencing negative effects from stronger pot, but the truly scary research has uncovered the terrible damage being done to the developing brains of younger people. A University of Washington study found that adolescents and young adults who use high potency marijuana products are not only likely to become addicted but have a sharply increased risk of schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders.
This is not what Washington citizens voted for. We already have a mental health crisis in this state, and we do not need the cannabis industry to make things even worse by selling a radically altered drug just so they can get richer.
We’ve seen this scenario before with Big Tobacco. It is time for state legislators to stop taking campaign donations from this new avaricious industry and start putting hard limits on a dangerous product.
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