Dangers of legal pot very clear

My two cents regarding the legalization of medical marijuana may be worth considering. My husband and I owned a few rental properties in Colorado both before and after their legalization of marijuana. We have witnessed firsthand the ill effects of that seemingly merciful decision.

No one I know wants to deprive those in chronic pain of the one antidote that would bring them relief, but our naive assumptions about the actual results of this legislation have proven us fools. Pot shops sprouted up everywhere, making the new powerful version of the old marijuana available to everyone. Without a prescription, anyone can buy a joint or two and one tourist reported that a few puffs of this new super-potent weed kept them high for hours.

Closer to home, two of our four tenants, previously hard working and trustworthy, began lying and destroying our homes as they got further and further into smoking, growing and illegally exporting marijuana. Their work ethic disintegrated to the point that both lost their jobs.

Colorado became a magnet for potheads from all over the country. And new users were encouraged to begin a habit that, while not encouraging violence, seems to drain the energy and brain cells from its users.

Selling marijuana is a lucrative business and I’m not surprised by the money dumped into publishing manipulative ads for the legalization of marijuana in Florida, but please consider what this could well do to our state. There have got to be ways in which the truly deserving can get their pain-relieving fix without having to smoke or eat sweets laced with the stuff.

Without strict regulation, we are in for a basket of unanticipated troubles. And what starts out as being (ostensibly) for “medical” marijuana soon becomes a thriving alternate business!

Sincerely, a non-hysterical realist.

This story was originally published November 5, 2016 at 6:19 PM with the headline "Dangers of legal pot very clear."