Marijuana legislation is tied to a 25% increase in cannabis use disorder among teens, and the share of 12th-graders who vaped pot products nearly doubled from 2017 to 2021, according to a report released Thursday.
Ms. Pinsky said the issue is personal to her. She was hooked on pot but was 485 days sober as of Thursday.Former Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, Rhode Island Democrat, said he cannot understand why the U.S. would legalize marijuana and run rampant ads for sports gambling and hard liquor while broader addiction and overdose rates remain unacceptably high.
“Today is the start of an entirely new industry for our state and a historic moment in our work to advance social and economic justice,” New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, said last year while launching voter-approved marijuana dispensaries in the state. In Virginia, 6 in 10 regular marijuana users reported driving while under the influence of pot in recent months, and roughly a quarter reported driving under the influence of the drug at least once a week.
Keith Humphreys, a Stanford University professor who tracks drug issues and was not involved in the report, agreed that the financial benefits of cannabis legalization “have not been shared with oppressed communities.”