The increasing use and deadly abuse of marijuana among children and adolescents in the United States is a further negative consequence of marijuana legalization.
A study published by Clinical Toxicology on Monday reveals a 245% increase in the number of calls due to marijuana usage among adolescents aged 6 to 18 from 2000 to 2020, with nearly 1,800 calls in 2020 alone. Those figures, the study authors believe, have been accelerated by the trend since 2017 of state marijuana legalization — and by the fact that so much marijuana is now ingested in edible forms.
It makes horrible logic. If marijuana is legalized, more individuals will purchase, sell, and use it. According to Gallup, regular marijuana use has more than doubled since 2013, reaching 16% of Americans and over a third of individuals under 35. And 14% of Americans consume THC-infused edibles.
This wave of cultural acceptability increases the likelihood that someone will abuse the drug to the point of self-harm, especially since THC (the psychoactive component in marijuana) concentrations have been on the rise since the 1990s.
It also means that young children are more likely to accidentally consume THC-laced sweets, such as gummy bears or chocolate bars. Often, edibles are packaged to resemble popular, non-psychoactive candy brands.
That itself is a catastrophe. A growing body of evidence suggests that high THC content in marijuana and long-term use by adolescents may contribute to…