Reason #5021 Not To Smoke Pot: The Kids

When I served on the Yakima City Council, I was pretty clear about my position on marijuana in the city of Yakima. Voters said no thanks, so I said no thanks, too. I have heard all the arguments for and against.

Here's another one against.

Why? Why are we moving to legalize marijuana across this country when we have troubling information like this new study reported in the DailyMail.

Harvard researchers found kids are two and a half times more likely to smoke, drink, and take drugs if their parents have used cannabis. Researcher Bertha Madras says, "Early marijuana initiation is associated with higher rates of addiction, impaired cognition, pre-clinical or clinical symptoms of psychosis, schizophrenia, depression, suicidality and reduced educational achievement and employment status."

I guess if you don't believe marijuana has serious long-term effects then none of that matters to you ... but it matters to me. We already have a drug and mental health crisis in the country and here we are moving to legalizing the creation of the next generation of problem users.

The study concludes "This underscores the need for engagement by both parents and health care professionals in youth substance use prevention and parental substance use disorder treatment."    Ya think?