My simple, practical mother loved idioms. They say much in few words. Her favorite observation of professional and political idiocy was that the actors were taking us “to hell in a handbasket.” Having lived through the consequences of two World Wars, Great Depression poverty, Chicago mafia crime, and three political assassinations, her analysis often made sense.  

Wisconsin’s next political handbasket on the slippery slope to hell carries legalized marijuana decorated with tax revenue. Why send users across our borders when we can benefit from state regulated weed sales? Sen/ Jeff Smith says two thirds of us want easy access to new highs and he wants the spoils. He obviously hasn’t checked out Colorado.  

In 2021, after nine years of recreational sales, Colorado’s government backtracked and passed new legislation limiting sales of high-potency marijuana to one fifth of the current levels. Warning labels, real-time monitoring of sales, more limits on medical recommendations and more School of Public Health research are now required. 

What happened to all those predicted financial, social, and business advantages? Didn’t Colorado legislators anticipate the black-market Mexican cartel product (stronger, cheaper, and tax free) flooding the state to undersell the regulated stuff? Our country’s open borders grease their paths everywhere including Minneapolis, Chicago and Milwaukee.  

Public information has not kept up with today’s cannabis. The junk on the streets can contain over 80% more tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) than the product baby boomers smoked decades ago. Some of it is tainted with opioids. And American youths are making it their recreational drug of choice. 

The elder smokers of today rarely worried about weed addiction 40 years ago, but young regular users today face the onset of “use disorders,” the new more pleasant term for addiction. The consequences can be a variety of mental health problems including psychosis.  

From the National Institutes of Health (NIH): Because marijuana impairs short-term memory and judgment and distorts perception, it can impair performance in school or at work and make it dangerous to drive. It also affects brain systems that are still maturing through young adulthood, so regular use by teens may have negative and long-lasting effects on their cognitive development, putting them at a competitive disadvantage and possibly interfering with their well-being in other ways. Also, contrary to popular belief, marijuana can be addictive, and its use during adolescence may make other forms of problem use or addiction more likely. 

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recently reported that approximately 539,106 cannabis-involved Emergency Department visits occurred among persons aged 25 or under between Dec. 30, 2018–Jan. 1, 2023. 

Anyone who has lived with addiction in themselves or loved ones can see the dangers of legalized marijuana to our young populations, especially from uncontrolled product. Treatment centers see the results.  

Nearly 5 million U.S. young adults aged 18 to 25 and 1.3 million adolescents aged 12 to 17 had a diagnosable marijuana use disorder in recent years. Recovery and detoxification can take up to a year. How many of these youths are in our schools simply appearing to be unmotivated? Public school counselors typically will not share problematic student use with parents unless the student gives them permission. 

Statistics on dollars Wisconsinites spend on legal weed from Illinois are available, but not hard statistics on marijuana use and abuse here. The best we have is self-reported use in the previous month of just under 20% for over-18s and about 11-12% for those younger.  

Sen. Jeff Smith and his cohorts should explain why no report on Wisconsin marijuana use and abuse has been done for the Council of Alcohol and Drug Abuse, of which Smith is a member, since Scott Walker was governor. A 2021 national survey estimates Wisconsin has over 830,000 users. Mixing weed and alcohol can produce a faster high but also serious health consequences. 

Plenty of data have been gathered for the nation’s “model” state since legalization: Colorado’s marijuana use has risen 30% to become third highest in the country, 76% above the national average. Marijuana-related traffic deaths, positive employee tests, health care services, calls to EMT and law enforcement are all up.  

Among college-age youth (20–25), past-month use is 50% higher than the average, while past-month use for ages 12–17 is 43% higher. Colorado is tops in the nation for highest percentage of adults needing drug treatment but not getting it. 

Does Sen. Smith really believe that more product here, legal and not, won’t bring us more drivers under the influence, more traffickers and black-market middlemen, more users with severe reactions, more mixed drug usage, more underage addicts, and more pressure on law enforcement and medical facilities?  

The senator, and the six out of 10 Wisconsinites who can’t wait for over-the-counter smokable, edible, and drinkable marijuana, should take a hard look at how legalization is working for Colorado taxpayers. All this information is on the internet.