When considering the legalization of recreational marijuana, we’re afraid the risks — an almost certain increase in crime and the additional harm to Hawaii’s youth for example — far outweigh any financial benefit to the state. A puff here and a toke there considered as harmless is grossly misleading, and any windfall tax revenue benefits are highly exaggerated.
The “Dual Use of Cannabis Task Force” created by the Hawaii Legislature in 2021 (Act 169) has been working the past months to grease the skids for the eventual legalization of recreational marijuana for the upcoming session. Its conclusions, though not gushing, are overwhelmingly in favor of taking our state down this dangerous path to more addiction and harm to our state.
But what isn’t considered is the tremendous damage it has done in the other states that have legalized recreational cannabis. Consider these facts:
>> It’s dangerously addictive to youth. The risk to Hawaii’s youth is substantial, and though mentioned in the report it fails to seriously look at what has happened in other states that have legalized marijuana. For example, according to the latest school-based survey from Colorado, marijuana use has risen over the past two years by 21% among young people. The increase particularly affected young teens (15 and younger) who reported a 15% increase. Other findings indicate that marijuana is the most common drug found in the toxicology of teens who die by suicide.
>> It will lead to more crime. Proposition 64, California’s 2016 landmark cannabis initiative, sold voters on the promise that a legal market would cripple the drug’s outlaw trade, with its associated violence and environmental wreckage. Instead, the law triggered a surge in illegal cannabis California has never witnessed before. Rogue cultivation centers — many run by foreign drug cartels — have popped up all over rural California. The L.A. Times reports, “Outlaw grows have exacerbated cannabis-related violence, bringing shootouts, robberies, kidnappings and, occasionally, killings. Some surrounded residents say they are afraid to venture onto their own properties.” It is now estimated that illegal farms outnumber legal ones, 10 to 1. Don’t think Hawaii will escape this market reality.
>> Unrealistic expectation of regulation. Hawaii is ill-equipped to properly regulate the use of recreational cannabis. One look at the sky over Honolulu on New Year’s Eve will tell you government can do little to regulate much of anything. And the risk of corruption grows exponentially as the introduction of legalized marijuana in several states has led to international cartels setting up shop with little that can be done to stop them. In California, a county sheriff said, “It’s like taking on a gargantuan army with a pocketknife.” And mind you, the Honolulu Police Department is short about 300 officers, as is.
>> Black-market weed outsells state-sanctioned dispensaries. As in California, the latest data in Hawaii indicates that the eight cannabis dispensaries that were set up to control the safety and quality of marijuana to users has fallen far short of its goals. Dispensaries complain of the stringent government regulations that have made their prices unable to compete with black-market marijuana, which is now the supplier of choice for most marijuana users.
An additional danger has entered this market with the recent rise of fentanyl-laced drugs, including marijuana. So the black market, though cheaper, is a potential killing field that the dispensaries with its guaranteed safe marijuana can’t compete with. More deaths from marijuana smoking are thus expected in Hawaii if the Legislature legalizes recreational marijuana in 2023.
Our police officers know first-hand the dangers outlined above of legalizing recreational marijuana because they have seen too many ruined families, drugged drivers, lethargic youth without ambition, and crimes committed to support the buying and the selling of the weed.
It’s up to each of us to protect our keiki, and to make sure recreational marijuana legalization doesn’t pass in 2023.
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State Rep. Gene Ward contributed to this piece.
Robert Cavaco is president of SHOPO, the police union of Hawaii. State Rep. Gene Ward contributed to this piece.
