3-6 IAT Legal Pot

At one time the thinking was, legalize marijuana so that it can be regulated and taxed. I even thought it might be an opportunity for our farmers to make a few shekels. However, a conversation with drug counselor, Christopher Yadron, may have a lot of you thinking twice about the wisdom of legalizing marijuana. "I am a counselor with Rosecrance and I am also the director for recovery services in Chicago for Rosecrance. Primarily what we do is substance abuse treatment. We have been around for nearly 100 years, about the middle of the 20th century started to work with teens, and in the late 70s and early 80s we began to specialize in substance abuse treatment. What with legalization of marijuana in Washington and Colorado, is it too early to tell the effects on teenagers from marijuana legalization? It is not too early to tell. I think one of the effects of legalization is that it sometimes causes the perception of harm to go down for dangerous substances. That said, I do have some information from a journal that says in Colorado currently, 74% of young people being treated for addiction reported that they received their marijuana from a medical marijuana card holder. So I would not say it is too early to tell because you already see the effects in that regard. There are tons of studies that show that marijuana has very harmful effects on the developing adolescent brain. As they begin to smoke marijuana, they oftentimes will begin to progress to other things as well." So it is a gateway drug.