Group warns of pitfalls of marijuana legalization
BANGOR, Maine — If Maine regulates marijuana the way it regulates alcohol, residents can expect increased use of the drug as the public perception of risk declines and the substance becomes cheaper, easier to obtain and more socially acceptable.
That’s the message Thomas J. Gorman, director of the the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, delivered during an anti-marijuana legalization presentation Wednesday at Husson University’s Gracie Theater.
The event was broadcast to an audience gathered at the University of Maine at Presque Isle Campus Center.
“We almost have as many people addicted to alcohol as use all the other illegal drugs combined,” Gorman said.
“That’s the worst model we would ever want to use,” he said.
Gorman is a longtime narcotics officer who served 10 years as an undercover agent and twice was wounded in the line of duty. The Rocky Mountain High Intensity Trafficking Area is a drug-prohibition program in Colorado run by the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy.
He discussed the effect of legalizing recreational marijuana in Colorado, where the nation’s first state-regulated pot stores opened in January 2014. Colorado, he said, ranks third in the nation for marijuana use among youths and fifth in the nation for use among adults. It has 369 licensed marijuana retail stores compared with 405 Starbucks coffee shops, he added.
Other statistics Gorman pointed to included increased traffic fatalities related to marijuana, increased arrests for motorists operating under the influence of marijuana, increased hospital visits and incidents of children accidentally consuming marijuana, and increased homelessness.
He showed attendees photos of three people he said died as a result of using marijuana edibles, which have higher levels of THC — the psychoactive substance in pot — than forms typically smoked.
In all three cases, the victims either took their own lives after using an edible or were killed by someone using edibles.
“When you talk about statistics … remember those are really people,” Gorman said.
According to organizers, the Sept. 23 event came in response to two petition campaigns seeking to put the question of recreational marijuana legalization on the November 2016 ballot.
A panel of local experts from law enforcement, public health and drug treatment facilities responded to questions submitted in advance online. Attendees were advised there would not be questions or heckling from the floor.
Among other issues, the panelists discussed their experiences with those addicted to marijuana and risky behavior addicts engage in as a result.
“Marijuana is not a medicine. It is a psychoactive and addictive drug, which should be treated as such,” said panelist Allen Schaffer, chief of psychiatry for Community Health and Counseling Services.
Other panelists were Patricia Hamilton, director of Bangor Public Health; Scott Gagnon, director of the anti-marijuana legalization group Smart Approaches to Marijuana Maine; Barbara Royal, executive director of Open Door Recovery Services in Ellsworth; and Penobscot County Sheriff Troy Morton.
