Posted on 10/21/2016 8:59:49 PM PDT by LouAvul
BENTON, Ark. (KATV) - Medical marijuana is now legal in 25 states and Arkansas could potentially be added to the list.
Two major law enforcement officials from Colorado are urging from their experience that voters say no to legalization in Arkansas.
Former president and current vice president of the Colorado Drug Investigators Association spoke exclusively to Channel 7 on Friday about how marijuana has changed their state and how it could affect ours.
"It's not a good thing for a community to do something like this," Jerry Peters, former president of the the Colorado Drug Investigators Association, said.
Peters said legalizing medical marijuana will only lead to legalization for recreational use like it did in Colorado and other states.
"This has brought an impact to the state of Colorado that's going to be hard to reverse," Peters said.
"I don't see anything that's been positive about legalizing marijuana, whether it's for recreational or for medicinal purposes," Jim Gerhardt, vice president of the Colorado Drug Investigators Association, said.
Gerhardt said it has become an unpredictable industry that has led to major problems in public safety and public health.
He also said they've seen an increase in homelessness, underage use, crime and death. There's also been a 62 percent increase in car fatalities involving marijuana.
"It has not been properly studied by the FDA to be able to say it's safe and effective," Gerhardt said.
Gerhardt said they've also seen more home invasions because of home growing, which is something that one initiative, ballot issue 7, in Arkansas would allow.
"A week ago we had a 14-year-old shot and killed when he jumped into the backyard of a man's house trying to take marijuana out of the backyard," Gerhardt said.
Both Gerhardt and Peters blame the potency of marijuana today. They said in the sixties and seventies marijuana had 3-5 percent THC and now it has 15-30 percent THC.
Plus, marijuana edibles and concentrates can have up to 95 percent THC.
Yeah, but it keeps the addicts happy. And hungry.
Just another way to control the masses...first welfare, then make healthcare unavailable through the collapse of Obama care, indoctrination and lack of education in the schools to create non functioning citizens....and dope them up with weed and drugs.
Bus them to the polls...Progressivism succeeds!
Since legalization in Colorado I have seen many drivers smoking pot while driving. They usually are driving banged-up cars. Probably a lack of prosecutions adding to the pot-smoker car condition.
Good for the Dorito business.
Pot “addicts”? You’re kidding right?
The medical marijuana my sister takes for lupus has helped her 10 times more than the poison opioids big pharma makes a fortune off of.
At the LEAST, let people in pain use it but not be allowed to grow it.
And if we really wanted to stop vehicular homicides, we would ban alcohol. Save a bundle on medical costs banning smoking and McDonald’s.
People dont get to pick and choose which vice they want to stay around.
Loss of federal funding for marijuana arrests?
“He also said they’ve seen an increase in homelessness, underage use, crime and death. There’s also been a 62 percent increase in car fatalities involving marijuana.”
Well who could have foreseen this? /s
“People don’t (sic) get to pick and choose which vice they want to stay around.”
Unfortunately, that is not true.
Progressives own prohibition. There was no marijuana prohibition in the US from Colonial times onward - until the nanny-state Progressives took control.
And druggies vote Dem too.
The concept of “legalizing” things is total BS.
We must not be a society that relies on permission, but one that aims to avoid consequences.
People want to control other people by letting them smoke pot.
People want to control other people by not letting them smoke pot.
Bottom line is people want to control other people, because that’s what people do.
If people want to smoke pot, more power to ‘em.
If people don’t want to smoke pot, more power to ‘em.
All I know is I sure do wish people would leave me alone.
No, because I don't need some crazed effing drooling druggie crawling through my window at night to get away from all the scary looking trees.
I disagree. Adults should be allowed to grow it. It's a freakin plant and this is supposed to be a free country.
Ban commerce in it but allow its personal cultivation.
But then, the government can't wet its beak.
OK, legal in Colorado and the government of Co. Does not want other states to have it. Personally, if other states had thc then maybe the pot heads from other states would stay in Arkansas or where ever they came from instead of invading Denver. If you grow your own, then you don’t have to pay taxes to the Gov. on it. People should grow inside to avoid being stolen from. A little common sense. Sometimes the Darwin Award can go to a variety of otherwise intelligent human beings.
If he’s crawling through your window, he’s been doing way stronger stuff than pot. All that stuff does is make you talkative to annoyance and give you the munchies at the same time.
Likewise I don't need some crazed druggie crawling through my window talking incessantly about whatever and looking for Doritos.
Well, it they’ve got money for that, they’ve got a couple bucks left for a bag of Doritos. And that’s all there is to it! Or they go home and open the fridge,, and pray.
Oh Gee, I must be seriously uninformed. I thought pot heads listened to music and did not talk because they were in dream land and the music was too loud for any form of intelligent conversation. Maybe the talking happens after the supply disappears and the dope fiends start searching for a renewed supply.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.