Speaker discusses ‘blunt truth’ on marijuana legalization within states

Students and community members gathered Monday at Winthrop to discuss the possibility of marijuana legalization.

During “The Blunt Truth” marijuana summit hosted by Keystone Substance Abuse Services and the York County All on Board Coalition, Ben Cort, business development manager for the Center for Addiction Recovery and Rehabilitation in the University of Colorado health system, said you have to understand science before you understand the rest.

Cort encouraged audience members under 25 not to smoke weed because a young person’s frontal lobes are not fully developed until that age.

“We want to inform public policy with the science of today’s marijuana,” Cort said. “This is not what you smoked in the ’70s.”

Cort showed marijuana advertisements in Colorado with labels up to 90 percent THC – tetrahydrocannabinol – the active ingredient in marijuana.

“It’s the black market that gets pushed out into a younger population,” Cort said. “The advertisements are not geared for adults.”

Danielle Center, Keystone prevention coordinator, said the event was planned to raise awareness about marijuana legalization with a non-bias presentation.

“The event is to let people know what marijuana legalization would look like, the effects it’s had on the states that have already legalized it, and answer any misconceptions that people have had,” Center said.

Matt Drescher, a Winthrop junior studying athletic training, said he thinks the increase in THC has gotten out of control.

“I think the data on how quickly concentrations have increased in marijuana strains and in concentrates ever since it was commercially available is probably the most interesting,” Drescher said.

Drescher said he agrees with Cort’s presentation.

“I don’t have a problem with the dude who just smokes a toke after a long day in the comfort of his home,” Drescher said. “But this industrial expansion of marijuana is not good. It was OK when we didn’t selectively breed it into dangerous levels, its just gone too far.”

State lawmakers are studying the medical uses of marijuana. The S.C. Senate Medical Affairs Committee will meet March 3 to revise the South Carolina Medical Marijuana Program Act.

This story was originally published February 23, 2016 at 11:08 AM with the headline "Speaker discusses ‘blunt truth’ on marijuana legalization within states."