CODVIP slots bonus
2024-10-16 03:17 Views:89
I’ve fought against addiction-for-profit industries throughout my career in public service.falcon play
As President Bill Clinton’s Health and Human Services Secretary, I watched tobacco company executives lie under oath in the infamous 1994 Congressional hearings, claiming “nicotine is not addictive.”
In Congress, I introduced legislation to ban flavored vapes and tobacco. As a three-time university president, I see the damage substance abuse has on a young person’s life and education.
Today, we face a new threat: Big Marijuana.The marijuana industry has taken a page out of Big Tobacco’s playbook by advertising high-potency, kid-friendly products.
To protect the next generation, I urge my fellow Floridians to reject corporate marijuana commercialization and join me in opposing Amendment 3.
I understand the concerns many Floridians have about marijuana criminalization. For decades, drug laws have unfairly targeted Black and brown communities.
To right these wrongs, we should decriminalize low-level marijuana possession, a move many counties and municipalities in Florida have already taken.
Amendment 3, however, would enact an entirely different policy by fully legalizing commercial marijuana sales. Our state can enact criminal justice reform without commercializing a new addiction-for-profit industry.
Public opinion on marijuana may be divided, but the research is clear: today’s marijuana is nothing like the 2% THC potency Woodstock weed of the 1970s.
With legalization, marijuana’s potency has skyrocketed to upwards of 99% THC. My greatest concern is marijuana’s effects on the developing brains of young people Landmark studies have demonstrated that marijuana is associated with psychosis, schizophrenia, anxiety, depression, worsening PTSD symptoms and even suicidality.
The impact on youth is drastic. Research published in 2023 found that teenagers with a marijuana addiction are upwards of 450% more likely to have negative mental health and behavioral outcomes.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), today’s marijuana has an addiction rate of 30%, far higher than the 9% addiction rate of just a decade ago.
Legalization increases the prevalence of marijuana addiction among youth to an even greater degree.
In fact, a study conducted by NYU researchers shows marijuana addiction rates among teens aged 12-17 increase at a 25% higher rate after states legalize recreational marijuana. We can only expect marijuana’s negative impact on our kids to worsen if legalization spreads.
Marijuana poses physical health problems, too.
Marijuana use is correlated with a three-to eight-fold increase in head and neck cancers. Daily marijuana use results in a 25% and 42% increase in the odds of having a heart attack and stroke, respectively.
The comparison to Big Tobacco isn’t metaphorical, it’s literal. When Canada legalized marijuana in 2018, Altria (the owner of Marlboro and Phillip Morris), invested $1.8 billion in marijuana. Now, Altria is lobbying to legalize marijuana in the United States. Big Tobacco wants to trick the American public again by pushing for marijuana legalization.
We shouldn’t let them.
Even those who support marijuana should vote no on the poorly written Amendment 3.
If Amendment 3 passes, Florida would be tied with Missouri for having the highest legal public marijuana possession limit in the nation (3 oz). Families in the Sunshine State don’t want to smell marijuana on our beautiful beaches and in our cities and towns.
Amendment 3 not only lacks taxation regulations, but it has no public health protections, something we know the industry will lobby heavily against in Tallahassee.
The initiative would also allow existing corporate medical marijuana companies to monopolize the industry. The marijuana giant Trulieve has injected more than $75 million into the campaign to pass Amendment 3 because this measure affords their company the opportunity to dominate mom-and-pop operations.
Our country’s fight against Big Tobacco is a point of pride for the public health community and Americans concerned about substance use and addiction. Let’s move forward, not backward, and reject legalizing a new Big Tobacco in the great state of Florida.
Join me in opposing Amendment 3.
Donna Shalala is a former Secretary of Health and Human Services. She was president of the University of Miami from 2001-2015 and is the former interim president of The New School in New York.
This story was originally published September 26, 2024, 8:24 AM.
Get unlimited digital access #ReadLocalTry 1 month for $1
CLAIM OFFER
Editorials
Herald endorsement: Our choice in Florida House District 114 election | Opinion
Updated October 14, 2024 3:47 PM
Take Us With You
Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand.
Miami Herald App
Part of the McClatchy Media Networkfalcon play
Copyright Commenting Policy Privacy PolicyCookie Preferences Your Privacy Choices Terms of ServicePowered by CODVIP|CODVIP lucky slots|CODVIP slots bonus @2013-2022 RSS地图 HTML地图
