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Marijuana will only cause problems

Ignorance and apathy: I don’t know and I don’t care. That’s Harrisville City Council’s impact statement on recreational marijuana. Area drug peddlers, users and big money with its nefarious connections are elated.

People have known for centuries that cannabis causes significant problems. January’s Imprimis magazine stated those who used cannabis in 2001 were three times as likely to use opiates three years later. In 2017, the Academy of Medicine found that cannabis increases the risk of developing schizophrenia. A recent Italian psychiatric journal stated that cannabis was responsible for a 10-fold increase in violence. A Texas study found cannabis directly linked to a number of child deaths from abuse.

Studies show that marijuana affects memory, lowers IQ, lessens coordination, increases depression and heart attacks, contributes to the breakdown of the family, increases hospitalizations, reduces learning abilities, and can lead to marijuana poisonings. Postal workers who tested positive for marijuana had over 50 percent more accidents.

Traverse City Police Chief Jeff O’Brien says giving children more access to marijuana will equate to more traffic deaths and that police officers will encounter many more deranged people. Colorado, the first state to legalize marijuana, now has a huge transient population without resources, youth marijuana use is now the highest in the nation and it is impacting education. Many who supported it are now against it.

Good people have the responsibility to impart moral values, honor God, and help children develop physically, emotionally and spiritually. These social issues are moral issues, and God’s church has the responsibility to speak out. These drugs were not available in Biblical times but drunkenness and getting high in the Bible is spelled out. People use marijuana to get high. You can clearly extrapolate this scripture to marijuana.

The good people of Harrisville need to recall their city officials.

MIKE WESTFALL,

Presque Isle

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