Today, SAM officials will testify in Connecticut on the cost of legalization and how the pot industry is aiming to put #peoplebeforeprofits
Recently, SAM released a comprehensive report on the projected costs of legalization in Connecticut. The report can be found here 🔽🔽🔽 learnaboutsam.org/wp-content/upl…
Marijuana legalization will cost the state $216 million, which is far more than the projected tax revenue of $113.6 million.
Additional costs of marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington have been identified, but data are insufficient to be able to quantify them. These include controlling an expanded black market, use by minors and public intoxication.
New data from Oregon shows that 70% of pot-market activity is illegal…more than two of every three transactions are not legal.
As consumption among minors has risen, so too has the need to enforce the law surrounding underage possession and use. In the two years following legalization in Colorado, the number of minors arrested for pot increased 5%.
Even using the conservative scenario in the above study, and not factoring in hard to quantify data, the costs associated with legalizing pot will far outweigh any associated revenue estimates.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Today, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment released their bi-annual “Monitoring Health Concerns Related to Marijuana in Colorado” report.
Our takeaways:
The report finds there have been significant increases in past-month and daily or near-daily use among adults, marijuana-impaired driving, exposures in children under the age of five, and use of high potency forms of the drug among high school students.
Also, despite constant statements to the contrary, after an initial reduction in use, regular youth marijuana use among those under 15 rose 14.8% in 2019 versus 2017.
The report is a comprehensive collection of the latest data and findings that track how marijuana legalization has affected commercialized states.
It greatly underscores the importance of slowing down the rush to commercialize marijuana in the United States.
To kick things off, the report shows that there has been a 25% increase in Cannabis Use Disorder (CUD) among 12-17-year-olds in “legal” states since the implementation of legalization.
Today, the Vermont Senate advanced S. 54, a bill to commercialize marijuana in the state.
Ahead of the vote, top marijuana researchers sent Vermont Governor @GovPhilScott a letter encouraging him to continue his pro-public health stance by vetoing the bill.
🔽🔽🔽
Notably, S. 54 drops a House-backed provision that would have banned marijuana industry advertising and lacks a solid, roadside saliva provision that Governor Phil Scott has insisted upon in order for him to support it.
Furthermore, the letter notes that S. 54’s inclusion of marijuana potency caps is laudable but points out that marijuana industry lobbyists have “labeled this commonsense regulation as “stupid” and promised to try and repeal these regulations should the bill be signed into law.
Ahead of a tentatively scheduled vote next week in the U.S. House on the MORE Act, a bill that would federally commercialize marijuana, a coalition of thirty groups sent a letter to House leadership opposing the bill.
Statement🔽🔽🔽
“Almost 200,000 Americans have lost their lives and countless others are barely making ends meet. That anyone in Congress could fathom holding so much as a meeting on marijuana legalization at this time is beyond comprehension."
On Friday, @samhsagov released the latest National Survey on Drug Use and Health, which was packed with some key takeaways to highlight during #RecoveryMonth.
Notably, some 699,000 youth have an addiction to marijuana in 2019 – representing 187,000 new youth cases of CUD.
Overall, more than 4.8 million people aged 12 or older reported Marijuana Use Disorder in 2019, up from 4.4 million in 2018.