Editor’s note: This commentary is by Bob Orleck, who is a retired pharmacist and lawyer. He served as an assistant attorney general under Vermont Attorney General Jerome Diamond.
[P]lease listen carefully, Vermont! Messages are coming from Colorado. Take time to find out what is really happening there with legalized marijuana and don’t be deceived by the spin coming from the industry promoting legalization. They are in it for money and they could care less about the human cost. Be careful, too, of well-meaning people who unwittingly promote the pro-pot agenda because many of them are uninformed, confused or deceived.
Be mindful of what will be happening in January under our Golden Dome in Montpelier, because depending on what our lawmakers do, the Vermont that you and I love may be terribly changed forever. There are forces in and out of our state that want to legalize a dangerous addicting drug and to ultimately allow by law brain-altering substances to be sold to our people from stores in each of our towns and villages.
Colorado voters on Nov. 6, 2012, passed Colorado Amendment 64 to amend their constitution, allowing for personal use and commercial sale of cannabis beginning on Jan. 1, 2014. Colorado is suffering greatly because of this action. Don’t listen to those who are profiting from the massive industry that is Big Marijuana. Listen to those who are the front lines. Law enforcement and physicians there will tell you that things are not well in Colorado. Listen to concerned parents who have suffered the loss of a child because of marijuana.
A Marijuana Accountability Coalition was formed on Nov. 6, the date marking the five-year anniversary of that day when marijuana for recreational use became legal in Colorado. I say legal, but it’s not really since it remains illegal under federal law. The Colorado Springs Gazette reported that the formation of the anti-marijuana coalition “resulted from discussions among recovery professionals, parents, physicians and others concerned with the long-term effects of a commercial industry profiteering off of substance abuse.” What they went on to report needs to be taken to heart here in Vermont for come the beginning of January, just three years after commercial sale began in Colorado allowing people to become recreationally high, Vermont will be considering going down that same road.
“It’s one thing to decriminalize marijuana, it’s an entirely different thing to legalize an industry that has commercialized a drug that is devastating our kids and devastating whole communities,” said coalition founder Justin Luke Riley. “Coloradans need to know, other states need to know, that Colorado is suffering from massive normalization and commercialization of this drug which has resulted in Colorado being the No. 1 state for youth drug use in the country. Kids are being expelled at higher rates, and more road deaths tied to pot have resulted since legalization.”
Dr. Ken Finn from Colorado Springs just sent a message sharing what is happening in his state and gave some advice to Vermont.
Another Colorado physician, Karen Randall from Pueblo, also sent a message and warning for Vermont. Dr. Randall has worked in the third largest emergency practice in the state from before pot was legalized to the present day. Dr. Randall spent 18 years at Henry Ford in Detroit as a teaching physician in emergency medicine and is residency trained in both pediatrics and emergency medicine. She offers a unique perspective on what Vermont will experience should we decide to go the way of Colorado. She should be listened to and our lawmakers should ask her to come here and testify.
There have been many in Vermont crying out to our Legislature, pleading for them to not legalize marijuana because they have seen and know the devastation it has caused. Just recently, the Vermont Medical Society, by resolution, went on record again opposing legalization of marijuana. The head of the Vermont State Police in November, before a full meeting of Gov. Phil Scott’s Marijuana Commission, said that legalization will cause additional fatalities on Vermont roadways. Former four-term governor Jim Douglas a couple of weeks ago spoke out that marijuana legalization for recreational use “is not right for Vermont.” Two of our neighboring states, Maine and New Hampshire, have just turned back legalization measures. These voices are not expressing new sentiments and many individuals and organizations have been crying out the warnings for at least the last two years, but their pleas have fallen on many deaf ears in Vermont’s Legislature. Some do not understand why this happened, but others are quite aware that the whole conversation is being driven by a lust for money and power, utilizing both deceivers and deceived to push us to the point of allowing an illegal drug industry to have its way. Last session, our lawmakers ignored six Vermont medical organizations, police organizations from around the state, educators and even Vermont’s own health department, and in doing so, brought us to the point where on Jan. 3 a bill that would legalize marijuana will be waiting on the desks of our House of Representative members for their action. The good news is that should the House of the people, our House of Representatives, reject the bill, this will make three years in a row and will send the message that their children are more important to them than people who want to make money selling drugs to those who want to get high just for the fun of it.
If Vermont rejects legalization again, the solidarity of this part of the nation will become apparent to other states struggling with the same issue and in doing that it will be something that Vermont would have a right to be proud of. The people need to get the message out to our lawmakers. If they vote to allow some to get high, there will be more of us who will surely die. That is inevitable!
