House Bill 639, to legalize the sale of recreational marijuana in New Hampshire, is being considered by the NH Senate Judiciary Committee and the following was my testimony this week in opposition to the bill.
I am a huge fan of Americans for Prosperity. They truly care about helping marginalized people succeed like the single mom struggling to pay the rent and the young man with a criminal record looking for work without success.
AFP believes that they can help these less well-off New Hampshire residents by supporting the legalization of recreational marijuana, but the truth is that those people they want to help are the ones that will be hurt the worst by it.
From the study “Sociodemographic Characteristics Associated With and Prevalence and Frequency of Cannabis Use Among Adults in the US” published in JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association on November 30, 2021:
In this survey study including 387,157 US adults residing in 21 states conducted in 2016 through 2019, young, male, Black, and Native American individuals and individuals with low educational attainment and income were more likely to engage in higher frequency cannabis use.
Cannabis use, in particular use at least 4 days per week, is associated with neurocognitive deficits and poor educational and other social outcomes, especially in adolescents and young adults.
When I was handing out flyers to parents dropping off their children at our local elementary school recently in a neighborhood with a high density of impoverished families, I encountered a mom with slurred speech and her car wreaking of marijuana smoke. She was obviously not safe to drive. It frightens me to think how often she drives her young daughter while she is high.
From Alex Berenson’s 2019 book “Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence.”
Dozens of well-designed studies have linked marijuana with psychosis and schizophrenia. Researchers have found marijuana users are much more likely to develop schizophrenia. People with the disease suffer more frequent and severe relapses if they smoke.
Most people will never have a psychotic episode while using marijuana. Some will have temporary breaks from reality. But an unlucky minority of users will develop full-blown schizophrenia. At this point, doctors have no way of predicting who they will be.
In “How Weed Became the New OxyContin, published August 30, 2022, Dr. Christine Miller, an expert on psychotic disorders is quoted: “One out of every 20 daily users can expect to develop schizophrenia if they don’t quit.”
Related: On Recreational Marijuana Legalization
My brother started smoking marijuana at a young age and developed full-blown schizophrenia.
I haven’t had contact with him since before my youngest was born 27 years ago. We searched for him online and found a mug shot from when he was arrested for squatting on someone’s property. He can’t take care of himself, and he has been in and out of homeless shelters for decades.
On my drive to work in Massachusetts I go by multiple billboards promising me improved mental health, relaxation, and happiness if I shop at their cannabis stores. When I’m on my laptop at work I get digital ads from a nearby cannabis shop suggesting I stop in for a purchase. In Boston’s Financial District I saw ads on almost every street corner offering to deliver cannabis to my door.
Its horrifying. I know from painful, personal experience how much destruction Massachusetts has invited into their state.
