Is Marijuana Harmless? Don’t Kid Yourself.

We hear a lot, these days, about Colorado’s “experiment” with recreational marijuana. I think Colorado will be sorry some day that the state ever tried such a foolish “experiment.” According to Mitchell Rosenthal, the founder of the substance-abuse and treatment organization, Phoenix House, marijuana damages the heart and lungs and is a cause of anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, and psychotic episodes. In addition to all that, researchers at Northwestern University’s School of Medicine found that marijuana causes lasting changes in “working memory,” brain structures critical to memory and reasoning. A source of ready recall for basic information, like telephone numbers and solutions to everyday problems, working memory is also a strong predictor of academic achievement.

Recreational marijuana use has important social implications, too. A 2004 study of seriously injured drivers in Maryland found half the teens tested positive for marijuana.

All of us can remember that for decades and even hundreds of years, the use of tobacco for smoking was considered a harmless recreational practice. Finally, it was learned that tobacco use causes multiple kinds of cancer, chronic obstructive lung disease, and—most importantly—a remarkable increase in heart attacks. Who, among thinking people, would ever believe that inhaling noxious marijuana smoke could be harmless. We should use common sense rather than the misguided advice of the potheads among us to help us dispose of this major public health hazard.