I used to be happy to see a latest Press Herald editorial warn in regards to the excessive efficiency of at present’s marijuana (“Our View: We can’t be complacent about Maine youth hashish use,” Feb. 1).
At their current fee of progress, and taking into consideration the black market, marijuana gross sales in Maine will possible exceed $1 billion within the subsequent two years. By Maine’s personal survey, 41% of residents use marijuana, and half of that quantity use day by day.
In keeping with the identical survey, 90% of the marijuana utilized in Maine is excessive efficiency, that means it accommodates greater than 10% tetrahydrocannabinol or THC, the psychoactive element of the plant. Earlier than 2000, the typical marijuana flower contained between 2% and 5% THC.
Right now, Mainers can purchase flower containing effectively over 20% THC. Distilled chemical concentrates in vapes, edibles and different kinds can exceed 90% THC.
To study extra about at present’s marijuana, I encourage you to look at the 2 new episodes of the documentary collection “Voices of Hope,” airing on Maine Public on Feb. 16 and Feb. 23 at 8 p.m. In these episodes, you’ll meet Mainers who’ve been harmed by marijuana, together with a Yarmouth Excessive Faculty senior who describes how easy accessibility to marijuana has grow to be an issue in our colleges. It’s chilling to learn the way simply an 18-year-old can purchase a “medical” marijuana card and get entry to a product that, one other younger consumer quips, “shouldn’t be my grandfather’s weed.”
You’ll study that still-developing brains make teenagers and younger adults uniquely susceptible to dependancy.
In keeping with one examine, marijuana is extra addictive than opioids for teenagers and younger adults, which makes it alarming that 66% of Maine teenagers consider marijuana is secure to make use of a couple of times per week.
One justification for legalization was to scale back opioid deaths. However in states like Maine, the other appears to be taking place. Deadly overdoses are prone to proceed as a result of the primary rung of the dependancy ladder is usually marijuana.
Watching the documentary, you’ll study that MaineHealth’s emergency departments handled greater than 5,200 sufferers with a cannabis-related prognosis in 2022. Twenty-six p.c of these sufferers had been underneath 18. Anxiousness and despair in youth could be exacerbated and generally triggered by marijuana and should not cured by it. Suicidality may also enhance in those that use high-potency marijuana.
Lastly, you’ll study that common use of high-potency hashish has been linked to psychosis, schizophrenia and violence. In 2017, the Nationwide Academy of Drugs reviewed 30 years of analysis and concluded: “… the affiliation between hashish use and improvement of a psychotic dysfunction is supported by information synthesized in a number of good-quality critiques.” NAM continued: “The magnitude of this affiliation is reasonable to massive and seems to be dose dependent.”
Most of those details are well-known all through the world. Different nations have achieved a greater job of regulating each use and efficiency. Outdoors the U.S., per capita use charges are sometimes beneath 10%. Even a metropolis like Amsterdam, famend for its tolerant strategy to hashish use, has entertained limiting THC efficiency to fifteen%.
Whereas at first look a rising economic system is interesting, dependancy impacts each facet of society and enslaves far too many to a lifetime of struggling and misplaced potential. Many years in the past, tobacco executives found that younger persons are burdened with a singular propensity for dependancy. It’s time for Maine to undertake strict regulatory controls on marijuana and never relive the previous.
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