More than once the law has been wrong. We are now in the presence of another wrong law. For 5 months now I have been living in a state where it is legal to smoke marijuana. For 5 months now I have been listening to tragic stories of death and destruction. I want to stop this madness and bring out the truth. Sign this petition for the reasons stated below and make the world right again.

Since the the law in Colorado legalizing the recreational use of marijuana, Colorado amendment 64, was implemented on January 1, 2014, the number of drug related deaths has increased substantially. The first day that cannabis was legal in Colorado 37 people died of cannabis related causes. In Seattle, Washington, where recreational marijuana is also now legal, another 22 people died making the total 59 marijuana related deaths on the first day.

On March 11th, at the downtown Holiday Inn in Denver, a college student on spring break jumped over the railing falling 30 feet to his death on the atrium floor below. The officials who came to the scene reported that he had 7.2 nanograms of THC, the active ingredient in cannabis, per milliliter of blood. The man’s friends said that he had tried several marijuana laced cookies that are now legal to sell. The official reason he jumped was because he was high on marijuana.

In addition, it is impossible to ignore the 47 year old man who shot his wife while intoxicated. The wife was on the phone with a 911 dispatcher after her husband started to hallucinate. Reports state that initially the husband went to the gun safe and pulled out the gun giving it to his wife and telling her to shoot him, but after 13 minutes of being on the phone with the dispatcher screaming was heard then a gunshot. When police arrived at the scene, they found the wife dead. The husband subsequently confessed to shooting his wife and to have been eating marijuana laced edibles.

Off from the subject of deaths, there is another problem that comes with the legalization of cannabis. Because it is now legal for adults to have marijuana in their possession, it is now also much easier for children to obtain. Two fourth graders were recently arrested for dealing marijuana during recess. Now young kids are able to get ahold of marijuana causing them get addicted and fall into the same bad pattern as every other drugie in America. Contrary to common belief, about 1 out of every 6 adolescents who try marijuana get addicted - it is scientifically proven that marijuana is addictive.

One way that people get THC from marijuana is by getting the oils from the plant. The resulting oil is hash oil. To make this oil users pour highly flammable butane over the leaves. The resulting oil is highly flammable and the vapor can linger for a long time. With only one static electricity spark, the whole area can explode in flames. In the 5 months that marijuana has been legal, there have been 31 reported hash oil explosions resulting in 10 people getting sent to Colorado’s only certified burn center. In 2013 there were only 11 hash oil explosions with only 11 people getting sent to the burn center for hash oil burns and in 2012 only 1 person had to get treatment from a hash oil explosion. Hash oil is not only highly flammable, but also contains up to 80% THC. The result, users say, is that two drops can create a high better than a single joint. With approximately 1 gram of oil going into every dozen cookies, it can be very dangerous.

Use of marijuana increases the heart rate of the user by 20-100% causing the chances of having a heart attack to more than quadruple (x4.8). In addition, cannabis has also been shown to double your chances of getting in a car accident. The concentrate of THC in a marijuana plant has increased over the years. In the 1960’s to early 2000’s the concentration was 2-7%, but now the concentration ranges from 23-28%. This means that one joint is much more toxic than previous causing the effects to become stronger. The concentration is on the rise.

According to a study conducted by NYU, 64% of high school seniors will have used marijuana by the time they turn age 26. This is a big increase from what it was before the recreational use of marijuana was legalized. According to a paper published by Valencia Community College, cannabis use increases the distance between nerves in the brain causing much slower thinking and an increased difficulty doing complex tasks. A study in New Zealand showed that teens who started to smoke marijuana lost an average of 8 IQ points between the ages of 13 and 38. Now imagine a whole country dropping 8 points; that would equate to a cummulative drop of 2,538,383,504 points in America. America is losing its title as the place where great things come from. Increasingly, America is falling behind other nations of the world in areas like science and technology. Imagine what it would be like if the majority our population started to get slower and lose IQ points. We would move a lot farther down the list, almost to the bottom.

Here is a presentation of all the same reasons but with pictures and graphs. Thank you for signing.