I believe making recreational marijuana legal in the First State will have a harmful impact on Delaware youths, damaging futures and squandering potential.
While I have many issues with the Delaware Marijuana Control Act -- including its likelihood for creating additional problems on our roads and in the workplace – I find that it is my apprehension for our teenagers and young adults that has become my chief concern.
Like alcoholic beverages, House Bill 150 would set the minimum legal age to buy and use marijuana at 21 years old. Although younger Delawareans will be barred from being the primary consumers, many will gain easy access to it, either through older siblings conducting straw purchases, or parents who leave their cannabis products unattended or unsecured.
Setting aside what I believe to be a valid concern — that marijuana is a gateway drug — there are other substantial reasons for my unease.
A 2019 study by the University of Minnesota School of Public Health shows law enforcement agencies in Colorado and Washington -- states where recreational marijuana is legal -- reported problems with underage usage. To learn how both states were enforcing age-restriction laws on marijuana use, Professor Darin Erickson, co-author of the study, surveyed 50 local enforcement agencies. He found that all the agencies polled reported underage use was somewhat or very common in their jurisdictions.
In a separate analysis, Dr. Christian Hopfer, with the University of Colorado, looked at the implications of marijuana legalization on usage by adolescents. He concluded legalization could hike teen usage due to increased availability, greater social acceptance and the introduction of new edible and vaping products. He also observed it is unknown what effects different patterns of adolescent use would later have on cognition, school performance and the development of new or continuing substance abuse.
Dr. Hopfer’s work illustrates a great stumbling block to properly evaluating legalization -- the scarcity of irrefutable facts.
For instance, according to a 2016 article in the Journal American Medical Association (JAMA) Psychiatry, several studies suggest that marijuana use can cause functional impairment in cognitive abilities but that the degree and/or duration of the impairment depends on the age of the person when the habit began, how much was consumed, and for how long it continued.
Some studies have linked marijuana use to declines in IQ, especially when use starts in adolescence and carries into adulthood. However, other explorations of this subject have yielded different conclusions.
Imaging studies of marijuana’s impact on brain structure have also shown conflicting results, with some suggesting that regular marijuana use in adolescence is associated with reduced volume in regions of the brain involved in memory, learning, and impulse control. Other studies have not found significant structural differences between the brains of users and non-users.
While our uncertainty is extensive, we do know that it is generally accepted that the human brain does not reach full maturity until a person is 25 years old. It is not until this age that the prefrontal cortex — the part of the brain that helps curb impulsive behavior – is fully developed.
Medical science does not yet fully understand everything about the development of the brain through adolescence into adulthood, nor does it have a handle on the exact impact of marijuana use during these formative years.
Although we may not have definitive proof of marijuana’s detrimental impacts, there are clear indications that they exist and are potentially substantial. As a society, is it prudent or rational to use our youths as lab rats in a generational experiment to determine how damaging the practice truly is? Since life does not have a reset button, I maintain that the potential risk of permanently diminishing thousands of young Delawareans is not worth the potential payoff of gaining a relatively modest amount of additional state revenue.
There are a host of widely available legal and illegal substances potentially impacting the health of Delawareans. We need not add marijuana to the list, imparting with its legalization a false veneer of safety and acceptability.
Rep. Charles Postles, R-Milford, serves District 33.
