Record-breaking marijuana sales in Maine were reported in a recent Press Herald article about a proposed cannabis bill (“Maine cannabis regulators consider new rules to expand consumer access,” Sept. 4), but the article said nothing about the health effects and risks to public safety of marijuana use.
The bill doubles the allowable potency a product can have and the amount of cannabis concentrate a person can purchase. This is not a good bill for Mainers. Maine needs to regulate higher levels of THC (the psychoactive component of marijuana that provides a user’s high) and the availability of marijuana for young people in Maine.
Blue Rising Together, a grassroots group of parents from Colorado, has witnessed firsthand the damaging effects of unregulated Big Marijuana and the price that many youth in Colorado have paid. They say:
“These high-potency concentrates – wax, distillate, shatter, and others – are so damaging to young users because the human brain is not fully developed until around age 25, and healthy brain development can be interrupted or altered by exposure to such potent drugs. As more states legalize marijuana, it is crucial that they have regulations in place to limit the potency of these dangerous concentrates.”
We know that the marijuana industry is bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars to the state, but at what cost? I hope that our legislators will listen to the medical community, educators and counselors who work with…