This House regrets the legalization of marijuana.

ethics

Twenty-four states now allow recreational use. Adolescent use rates have not surged as critics predicted, but ER visits for high-potency products have. The harm is real and unevenly distributed.

Background

Colorado was the first to legalize in 2014. National Youth Risk Behavior surveys show adolescent past-30-day use is essentially flat (15-18%) across the legalization period. Adult ER visits for cannabis hyperemesis and acute psychosis have risen 3-5x since 2014, driven almost entirely by high-potency concentrates (60%+ THC) that did not exist in the pre-legalization black market. The criminal-justice case is strongest: cannabis arrests fell from 750,000 in 2013 to under 230,000 in 2022, with the disparity-in-arrest rate dropping in legalized states but not vanishing.

Government opens with

Commercial legalization gave a multibillion-dollar industry incentives to push potency.

Opposition responds with

Criminalization's harms were concentrated, certain, and racially patterned; legalization's harms are diffuse and partially mitigable.