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Experts Warn Of Danger Of Legalizing Marijuana In State


State Rep. Marty Moylan (at podium) introduces panel of experts organized for Friday’s town hall on possible effects of legalized marijuana in Illinois. Seated (from l. to r.): Rev. Gregory Livingston, Dr. Aaron Weiner, Raymond Bertino, Jo McGuire and Dr. Karen Randall. (Tom Wessell/Journal photos)

Five guest speakers gathered by State Rep. Marty Moylan (D-55th) to discuss the effects of possible deregulation of marijuana in Illinois told a town hall meeting Friday, Jan. 4 at the Des Plaines Library that Illinois should not allow recreational use of cannabis products.

During his successful campaign for governor, J.B. Pritzker said decriminalizing marijuana use will help wipe out the Illinois budget deficit.

“It is extremely important that we get all the facts regarding the upcoming legislation,” said Moylan, who wants to slow down the process and hold hearings around the state.

Audience members could submit questions to the panel.

Two speakers came from Colorado, where recreational marijuana has been in place for six years.

Dr. Karen Randall, MD, is an emergency room physician with a certificate in Cannabis Science and Medicine. She deals with patients every day who suffer from the effects of smoking or ingesting marijuana products.

The number of these cases she sees every week is skyrocketing, she said, with psychotic incidents from marijuana on the increase, often aggravated even more when mixed with methamphetamines.

Jo McGuire is chairman of the board of the National Drug and Alcohol Screening Society and a certified trainer who trains employers on complying with federal regulations on drug and alcohol screening.

She said the companies who hire her include construction firms with high-paying jobs that are lucky to find more than one or two applicants who can pass a drug test at all. They now recruit people from out of state.

Both women explained that compared to the days of Woodstock half a century ago, the marijuana now available has become much more potent through cultivation and cloning. The chemical THC potency in cannabis products is up to eight times as strong, but the Woodstock generation doesn’t always know that.

A “dab” dose can be 90 percent THC. There is little regulation, so other toxic substances can get in the mix. Growing marijuana requires a lot of water, and the growing fields are too close to streams and area farms which may use pesticides.

Not knowing the potency difference, a user may ingest 10 to 20 dabs a day, which could be upwards of 100 to 200 mg. Recreational users might once have smoked on a Friday night and been clean by Monday, but now they may continue using all weekend.

Cannabis products can look appealing to young children, like brownies or fruity flavors. Parents may not learn to distinguish between vaping products intended for nicotine e-cigarettes, and marketers often make those which contain THC products look the same.

The only “cure” is complete abstinence, Randall said.

They were asked if it wouldn’t make more sense — if adjacent states are legalizing marijuana — for Illinois to get the tax revenue instead?

Speakers said the proposal for Illinois is the most damaging way to legalize it, with the least restrictions and encouraging as many companies to get as many individuals hooked as heavily as possible.

McGuire said that in the six years marijuana been legal in Colorado, the legislature has had to extend its sessions for the past four years to find money to balance its budget. The governor there has refused to release figures on the social costs marijuana has imposed on the state.

She said they have tried to calculate those costs independently, and while their list may not be complete, they already estimate Colorado is in the hole more than 100 times the amount of taxes that legalized marijuana have generated.

People who want to smoke pot have inundated Colorado. Taxpayers inherit staggering bills to cover Medicaid services and support the unemployed.

Absenteeism in Colorado is way up, about 38 percent in Randall’s community. Homelessness doubled in two years.

McGuire said Colorado’s “home grow” black market drugs, which are not taxed at all, are already supplying Illinois users through drug cartels.

Rev. Gregory Livingston, who pastors the New Hope Baptist Church on Chicago’s West Side said that, in his community, it’s an example of rich businessmen who want to profit on the poor.

The rich businessmen can get tax increment financing money to invest in distribution companies, but African-American businesses do not, Livingston said. It’s a cultural divide.

He asked the audience to check on Pritzker family investments in cannabis processing and vaping companies.

Raymond E. Bertino, MD, from Peoria, a retired professor of radiology and surgery, said repeated use of the more potent modern marijuana can take up to 100 days to get out of a person’s system to pass a drug test.

McGuire said companies who ask if they couldn’t just stop requiring drug tests are endangering their insurance coverage. Who would want a school bus driver or an airline pilot to be high on the job?

Bertino quoted a New Zealand study where pilots underwent testing on flight simulators using regulated doses. Pilots were sure they were fine, but kept crashing the “plane” because they soon were unaware there was anything wrong with their reactions, he explained.

The number of middle school students using vaping products in Denver, Colorado, are now the highest users of THC, he said.

Bertino and psychologist Aaron Weiner, director of addiction services at Linden Oaks Behavioral Health in Naperville, discussed the cognitive damage caused by marijuana on those younger than 25.

Development of the frontal lobes of the brain, where young adults develop executive decision making and judgment, happens at about age 25. Using cannabis sooner can permanently prevent developing that judgment.

Weiner said that the end point of use is addiction, marijuana is addictive, and the medical community has identified and studied a cannabis use disorder.

After alcohol, cannabis is the second-most common substance abuse his clinic sees. As it becomes more available and is not perceived to be dangerous, the numbers of users grow.

Anything less than a complete prohibition will create an industry intending to make as much money as possible, he warned.

Livingston said there are already enough vices for the government to tax without creating a new one.

Those attending Friday’s town hall were invited to read more about the effects of legalized marijuana.

During Friday’s town hall, Dr. Karen Randall from Colorado talks about a surge in marijuana-related hospitalizations in that state.

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