1. Regardless of any state laws, recreational marijuana use is still illegal on the federal level.
The Federal Drug Enforcement Administration has classified marijuana as a Schedule 1 controlled substance because of its high potential for abuse and the fact that there is no currently accepted national standard for use as a medical treatment.
2. The expansion of marijuana use has a negative impact on surrounding business communities.
- Marijuana use and criminal involvement (other than drug use) are highly related.1
- Medical marijuana is often sold by storefront dispensaries, not in medically controlled circumstances, and is not monitored by physicians. In other states, the storefront dispensaries have become magnets for crime and increase law enforcement costs.2
- Common byproducts related to dispensaries include drug dealing, sales to minors, loitering, heavy vehicle and foot traffic in retail areas, increased noise, robberies of customers near the facilities and the loss of other commercial businesses that do not want to be located in the vicinity of marijuana dispensaries. 3
- According to statistics provided by the city’s Department of Safety, Denver recorded 7,000 reported crimes within 1,000 feet of dispensaries in the first six months of both 2012 and 2013.4
- A study found employees who tested positive for marijuana have 55 percent more industrial accidents and 85 percent more injuries than non‐users, and 78 percent have higher absentee rates than non‐users.5
- Drug‐using employees have been shown to have up to 300 percent higher medical costs, which increase insurance rates for employers and employees.6