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Legalizing Marijuana

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The STATES Act and the SAFE Act

1787 supports the Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States (STATES) Act, which would give U.S. states, Washington D.C., U.S. territories, and federally recognized tribal nations the right to determine the best approach to cannabis within its borders. The legislation allows these entities to apply their own policies without fear of consequence from the federal government.

1787 also supports the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act of 2019, which would protect banks and financial institutions that choose to service cannabis-related businesses if the businesses operate within their state’s legal and regulatory rules.

 

Because cannabis is still considered a Schedule I drug by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, banks can currently face penalties from federal regulators for serving cannabis-related businesses, even in states that have legalized it. This has resulted in many of these businesses using a cash-only model, which leaves them vulnerable to theft, fraud and violent crime.

Negative Effects of Marijuana on Children’s Brains

We are very concerned about the effects of marijuana on children’s brains. This concern is deepened by the fact that the scientific community is only now realizing results from their long-term studies of marijuana use. 
 

Studies have already discovered that, not only does “early adolescent substance use dramatically increases the risk of lifelong substance use disorder,” but also that “marijuana abusers show lower positive and higher negative emotionality scores than controls, which is consistent, on one hand, with lower reward sensitivity and motivation and, on the other hand, with increased stress reactivity and irritability…”  which is the last thing teenagers need.
 

One study “recorded clear and consistent associations” between the frequency of adolescent cannabis use and all adverse young adult outcomes. Compared with individuals who had never used cannabis, those who were daily users before age seventeen years had clear reductions in the odds of high-school completion and degree attainment, and substantially increased odds of later cannabis dependence, use of other illicit drugs, and suicide attempts.” Teenagers who smoke weed daily are 60 percent less likely to finish high school and seven times more likely to attempt suicide than those kids who never use marijuana. 
 

Another study suggests that the future children of kids who smoke weed may have a higher risk for mental illness and addiction, even though they are years away from even being born.
 

​Research released by the American Journal of Psychology revealed that marijuana is more damaging to the teen brain than alcohol: “Cannabis use, but not alcohol consumption, showed lagged effects on inhibitory control and working memory and concurrent effects on delayed memory recall and perceptual reasoning (with some evidence of developmental sensitivity).  Beyond the role of cognition in vulnerability to substance use, the concurrent and lasting effects of adolescent cannabis use can be observed on important cognitive functions and appear to be more pronounced than those observed for alcohol.”

Improve the national cannabis research agenda to address research gaps, improve the quality of research, and address research barriers. 

Thanks to political disagreements and at times conflicting scientific research, there is still confusion around this issue. We need to improve and expand our research to better understand both the positive and negative effects of cannabis.
 

1787 supports the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine report’s four recommendations to improve the national cannabis research agenda:

​To develop comprehensive evidence based on the short- and long-term health effects of cannabis use (both harmful and beneficial effects), public agencies, philanthropic and professional organizations, private companies, and clinical and public health research groups should provide funding and support for a national cannabis research agenda that addresses key gaps in the evidence base.

To promote the development of conclusive evidence on the short- and long-term health effects of cannabis use (both harmful and beneficial effects), agencies of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, including the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, should jointly fund a workshop to develop a set of research standards and benchmarks to guide and ensure the production of high-quality cannabis research.

To ensure that sufficient data are available to inform research on the short- and long-term health effects of cannabis use (both harmful and beneficial effects), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, the National Association of County and City Health Officials, the Association of Public Health Laboratories, and state and local public health departments should fund and support improvements to federal public health surveillance systems and state-based public health surveillance efforts.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, industry groups, and nongovernmental organizations should fund the convening of a committee of experts tasked to produce an objective and evidence-based report that fully characterizes the impacts of regulatory barriers to cannabis research and that proposes strategies for supporting development of the resources and infrastructure necessary to conduct a comprehensive cannabis research agenda.

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