USA (MNN) — Nearly half of the 50 states in America have legalized recreational weed in recent years, and five more could vote to do so in November.
The Lighthouse’s Brandon Bower says even if cannabis is legal in your state, that doesn’t make it safe to consume.
“Picture this: you’ve got a drug dealer cutting up their cocaine on a table, packaging it, and then they’re cutting up their weed on the same table,” Bower says.
“People are dying from cross-contamination; we’re seeing so much fentanyl in the marijuana here in Indiana it’s crazy.”
Noting that today’s marijuana is more potent than in previous eras, Bower adds, “It is not safe to smoke marijuana any longer.”
Bower and other leaders at The Lighthouse speak from experience. One of the young men previously enrolled in The Lighthouse’s residential recovery program “had some major brain damage because whatever was in the weed that he smoked fried his brain,” Bower says.
“Here was a young, 27-year-old kid who had all of life in front of them, and because of the choice to smoke some weed that was cross-contaminated, he’s going to not be mentally the same for the rest of his life. It’s just really scary what’s happening.”
Recreational weed: risky business
Approximately one in ten people who use marijuana will become addicted. When people start using marijuana before the age of 18, the addiction rate rises to one in six.
(Photo courtesy of GRAS GRÜN/Unsplash)
Cannabis…