Legalization is no panacea. Simply lifting the criminal penalties creates new problems, not insurmountable but which require community attention.

Nobody knows this better than Portland, Oregon, where the decriminalization of all drugs became a major source of public dissatisfaction. As might be expected, Covid added to the city’s problems, but national attention focused on the open-air use of drugs, making it a political issue. So widespread was the discontent that the City abandoned its governmental structure. Among the changes, City council districts replaced at-large elections.

A spectacular and thoughtful article has brought similar attention to the problems tied to the sharp rise in marijuana use. About 4.5 million people aged 18 and over use marijuana daily or near daily. In 2002, approximately 1.5% of adults 26 and over were daily users. Today, it has skyrocketed to an estimated 7%.

In a major piece of enterprise journalism, the Times spoke to close to 600 users and discovered frequent illnesses in states across the nation. The journalists described widespread use even among users experiencing negative reactions, who often didn’t connect their symptoms to marijuana use. Although alarmed, many experts the Times consulted remained supporters of legalization. However, every one of them wanted wider recognition of the medical problems, which are often unknown to doctors and emergency rooms.

The newly legal businesses frequently offer products whose potency would give most stoners concern. New users without marijuana experience were vaping with products that had a 90% THC concentration. Anybody who’s hung out with drug users has met some people with a compulsion to persistently seek stronger drugs in the hopes of experiencing better highs.

Current legalization policies not only give such adventurers a free hand to try more potent versions of pot but also permit the marketing of these products to persons with limited experience who are unable to recognize ill effects, even dangers. Legal weed dispensaries don’t only sell grass that is recently harvested; they also sell hybrid products that provide an ever-increasing kick. In short, the Times team described a laissez-faire market lacking regulation.

Think about what would happen if liquor stores had no idea whether their whiskey was 80 proof, 100 proof, or 120 proof. Liquor products are standardized to protect buyers. They know what to expect because government rules mandated be presented to the consumer.

Pot is sold in a variety of products, sometimes from pot plants, other times from hemp, and undoubtedly many products in a pot store are cooked and unnatural.

As people grow older, they select their attitudes towards beer, wine, and liquor. A growing number of young adults simply don’t drink. Bar or restaurant patrons frequently encounter servers who don’t use alcoholic drinks.

What is surprising is the extent to which users experience problems that are often associated with booze: vomiting, mental confusion, and even cause psychosis. But all too often the public believes pot is harmless, which is often true but not always.

A more serious illness tied to marijuana is cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome (CHS). A wide range of symptoms mark the syndrome:  “nausea, vomiting and pain… extreme dehydration, seizures, kidney failure.” Even cases of cardiac arrest are reported. According to the three reporters on the Times team, doctors and users are unfamiliar with the connection between these symptoms and marijuana use.

Legalization properly done will inform the makers of marijuana products, the medical community, and consumers about the risks. The bottom line is that pot and other psychotropic drugs should be treated with respect, and many should stay away.

The outlook is cloudy. Congress can’t even agree on legislation that gives sellers and growers full access to banking facilities. Many people still attribute magic powers to pot and see it as a life-destroying force. The great merit of the Times article is the clarity with which it recognizes the pleasures experienced by potheads while offering specific and detailed information about how things can go wrong. The impact of the Times story, presumably the first of many, on the legalization community is uncertain. Many, including this writer, will think it’s an argument to make pot use a crime. It took me three readings to realize that Megan Twohey, Danielle Ivory, and Carson Kessler had fairly weighed the contentious arguments and found problems that any fair-minded person would want to address.