I’ve seen a number of letters promoting the idea that marijuana sales will benefit Delaware, individual towns and businesses. I ask anyone who thinks that is true to consider what has happened in Colorado. The following statistics are just a few from a study reported by the National Institutes of Health. The full study can be seen here: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6913861.
Since marijuana was legalized in Colorado, the following has happened:
- Traffic deaths in which drivers tested positive for marijuana increased 109%, while all Colorado traffic deaths increased 31%.
- Traffic deaths involving drivers who tested positive for marijuana more than doubled, from 55 in 2013 to 115 people killed in 2018. This equates to one person killed every three days in 2018, compared to one person killed every six-and-a-half days in 2013.
- Past-month marijuana use for ages 12 and older increased 58% and is 78% higher than the national average.
- Emergency department visits related to marijuana increased 54%.
- Suicide incidents in which toxicology results were positive for marijuana increased from 14% in 2013 to 23% in 2018.
- The notion that illegal uses would decrease proves false: More than 6 tons of black-market marijuana has been seized, determined to be destined for 25 different states.
- State revenue? Marijuana tax revenue represented approximately nine-tenths of 1% of Colorado’s fiscal year 2018 budget.
Pastor Jim Dorton
Camden
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
