For California voters tired of hearing about the red-blue divide, there’s another color lighting up ballots on Election Day: green.
Proposition 64, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, would allow Californians 21 and over to possess and use up to an ounce of marijuana for recreational purposes. (The state already allows the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.) Retail sales might begin as early as mid-2017.
Chances are high that Proposition 64 will pass with flying colors because most California voters think that the end of the prohibition against pot is long overdue — not because its use is without hazard but because criminalizing it has not been effective.
This sentiment is widespread nationwide. To date, 24 states in addition to California allow use of medical marijuana, and residents of Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, Washington and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational use. (Eight other states also will be voting Tuesday to permit recreational or medical use of pot.)
If Californians legalize marijuana for recreational use, I have several concerns about mental health, childhood development and public safety.
Dr. Curley Bonds, Medical Director of my organization, Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services, notes that marijuana can worsen depression and anxiety and that excessive use can trigger more psychiatric problems. The drug’s increased potency puts more people at risk of becoming addicted. And there is ample evidence that heavy marijuana use can affect teens’ developing brains by reducing IQ and motivation.
Then there’s the prospect of spaced-out users getting behind the wheel. Fatal accidents involving stoned drivers have soared in Washington State since the first legal stores selling marijuana for recreational use opened there in 2014, according to a study from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, a nonprofit research group based in Washington, D.C.
The drug affects different people in radically different ways. As a result, scientists have yet to establish a thoroughly reliable standard to know when a marijuana user is too impaired to drive. We run the risk of putting police officers and prosecutors behind the 8-Ball, without proper diagnostic and enforcement tools. A spokesman for the Los Angeles city attorney’s office acknowledges that law enforcement needs more tools and a standard for impairment to help jurors understand when a marijuana user poses a risk on the roads.
Some of these issues would be addressed by funds raised from state taxes on commercial cultivation and sales. According to the independent Legislative Analyst’s Office in Sacramento, California could eventually garner more than $1 billion a year, most of which would be used for youth programs, environmental protection and law enforcement. The LAO also said cannabis legalization would save state and local governments $100 million annually by reducing legal and incarceration costs. Since there’s likely to be an increase in requests for substance use and mental health services related to marijuana, we need to make sure an adequate amount of this money also goes to treatment.
Proposition 64 would also impose the nation’s strictest regulations governing labeling, packaging and testing of marijuana products — with the aim of keeping marijuana away from children and conveying warnings to help adults consume safely. However, the speed at which these regulations will roll out is yet to be seen. Although medical marijuana became legal in 1996, it was not until 2015 that the California legislature established comprehensive safety standards for medical marijuana dispensaries, which govern the industry from “seed to sale.”
If the measure passes, we must immediately implement safety regulations that apply to both medical and recreational marijuana use. Another prolonged delay could put the mental health, general wellbeing and safety of millions of Californians at risk.