EDITOR’S NOTE: J. Alan Branch serves as professor of Christian Ethics at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo. During their annual meeting in St. Charles, Oct. 24-25, Missouri Baptist messengers approved a resolution opposing the legalization of recreational marijuana. “… [W]e desire to protect the people of Missouri from the dangers of state-legalized recreational marijuana by urging a vote of ‘No’ on the measure entitled Amendment 3 on the November 8, 2022 Missouri ballot,” their resolution reads. In the following essay, Branch explains why legalized marijuana would be a mistake for Missourians. The graphic below the essay was created by the Missouri Baptist Convention’s Christian Life Commission.
Legalizing recreational marijuana is bad public policy for Missouri. On November 8, Missouri voters will be asked to amend the state’s constitution to remove bans on the sale, consumption and growing of marijuana. Doing so would make Missouri the 20th state to legalize recreational cannabis, but Missourians should think carefully and buck the national trend. The acrostic N.A.I.V.E. can help us understand why legalizing recreational pot is a bad idea for the Show Me State.
Negative Effects on the Brain. Marijuana has very detrimental effects on the brains of young people, and much of the damage is not reversible. A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry from June, 2021, concluded “cannabis use during adolescence is associated with altered neurodevelopment” in areas of the brain undergoing the greatest age-related change in middle to late adolescence. Even though the proposed amendment in Missouri sets 21 as the legal age for cannabis use, legalizing it throughout the state guarantees more pot will find its way into the hands of more teenagers, and more bright young minds will be damaged.
Addiction is Possible. While marijuana is not addictive in the same way that cocaine or heroin are addictive, that does not mean that there is no risk of addiction with marijuana. According to 2014 article in the New England Journal of Medicine, approximately 9% of those who experiment with marijuana will become addicted, but the risk for addiction is much higher for those who start using pot during adolescence, with 1 in 6 teenagers who use pot eventually becoming addicted.
Intoxication is Dangerous for Missouri. The legalization of marijuana will mean more Missourians will be driving while they are high, and this means greater danger on our highways and jobsites.
Vast Increase in Marijuana’s Potency. The marijuana today has four to five times as much THC, the chemical that makes people high, as earlier generations of pot. That means the cannabis being sold today is much stronger and more dangerous than what was grown 50 years ago. Higher levels of THC mean more negative consequences for Missourians.
Evil Behavior. The myth that smoking pot makes people friendlier and more mellow should be exposed for the lie it is. For example, the use of marijuana is correlated with an increased likelihood of domestic violence. In 2018, researchers from Ohio University and the University of Tennessee reported that 59.5% of men in court-ordered batterer intervention programs had used marijuana in the previous year, a danger amplified when alcohol is also involved. It is unclear how the widespread use of high-potency cannabis will affect rates of violent crime and sexual assault in Missouri, but using any drug lowers inhibitions and creates more threatening circumstances for families, women and children.
Legalizing recreational marijuana is a bad idea for Missourians, especially our children and teenagers. Once the smokescreen of arguments about increased tax revenue and decreased incarceration are blown away, the cold reality is that legalized pot means damage to the next generation and danger to the entire state.
This graphic, courtesy of the Missouri Baptist Convention’s (MBC) Christian Life Commission, was released during the MBC annual meeting, Oct. 24-25.