It was billed as a symposium on legalizing marijuana, and featured various speakers talking about an increase of illegal activity in places with legal pot such as Colorado. Panelists say the news is not good.
“The facts are undisputed that traffic fatalities have gone up. The ER visits – hospitalizations related to marijuana have skyrocketed. Youth use has skyrocketed,” said Bob Troyer, former Colorado U.S. Attorney.
The federal government also reports criminal activity from international drug cartels.
“We’ve seen a precipitous increase in trafficking organizations setting up large-scale marijuana production operations in Colorado,” said Wendi Roewer, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
They also point to pollution from illegal marijuana plant fertilizers. The U.S. attorney doubts legal marijuana will help the Mountain State.
“They have to understand there will be good and bad that comes from this. So there’s not a panacea. This won’t fix the problems of West Virginia. We need a good economy, but that won’t happen through the marijuana industry,” said Mike Stuart, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia.
But medical marijuana advocates felt the forum was one-sided, and should have done more to separate the medical and recreational marijuana debate.
“I believe a symposium is where you have people with varying viewpoints, and different opinions. And we would come together and discuss the facts and discuss the issues and come to a conclusion. I believe that this was set up with a pre-drawn conclusion,” said Del. Mike Pushkin, (D) Kanawha.
The U.S. Attorney says he’s okay with regulated medical marijuana in West Virginia, just not recreational.
“As of now over 30 U.S. states and territories have legalized medical marijuana and 11 of them have also approved recreational,” said Mark Curtis 13 News Chief Political Reporter.