U.S. Paying The Price for Big Marijuana

Family First NZ says that the latest US government survey on drug use and health makes sobering reading, and on the back of statistics earlier this week out of Colorado should send a clear warning to New Zealand families to resist any weakening of drug laws or allowing another ‘Big Tobacco’ into the country.

The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) found that there are now twice as many daily or near daily marijuana users in the US than just a decade ago There are also now 8,300 new marijuana users each day, and 22% of 18 to 25 year olds are currently using the drug - the highest number for all three stats in recent memory. 42% of marijuana users use the drug daily or almost daily, and marijuana was used by more than 8 in 10 substance users.

A Colorado report earlier this week, compiled by the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (RHMIDTA), found that marijuana-positive traffic fatalities, hospitalisations, marijuana use, and illegal market activity have all increased since marijuana legalisation.

“Rising mental health issues, drugged driving crashes, and an increasingly stoned workforce are all ‘red flags’ which should break through the smokescreen by pro-marijuana and pro-drug lobby groups and political parties. This is not an argument about marijuana or cannabis, it’s about THC and Big Marijuana. The real agenda is a global commodity market – drugs. All drugs. The conversation in New Zealand is being dictated by those who will profit. Big Marijuana will deny evidence-based science, and will minimise harms by emphasising such things as possible fiscal benefits of tax revenue,” says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ

“While dope shops have forms of cannabis plants, much of the business is in concentrates, edibles, and THC that can be vaporised, based on the extraction of highly potent THC from the plant, manufactured in to every possible way to consume that THC. The average THC content of all tested flower in 2017 in Colorado was 19.6%, and the average potency of concentrated extract products was 68.6%. Potency rates of up to 95% have been recorded. This is not your ‘Woodstock Weed’.”

“Big Marijuana has high hopes for New Zealand, and kiwi families need to be made aware of the real agenda.”

“Liberalising marijuana laws and empowering Big Marijuana is the wrong path if we care about public health, public safety, and about our young people. Drug use isboth a criminal and a health issue. New Zealanders only need to look to the USA as good evidence for saying no to any referendum which attempts to legalise weed.”
ENDS

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