In the Colorado Springs Gazette, Caroline Jordan argues Washington should not reschedule marijuana to Schedule III, warning that Colorado’s experiment shows how high-potency products and rushed commercialization put kids at risk. She recounts growing up in the first wave after Amendment 64, when glossy marketing outran guardrails and teens paid the price.
Jordan points to delayed safeguards, rising access, and research tying THC to impaired driving and mental-health harms, especially for youth. She says a Schedule III label would imply safety that the science does not support, urging strong protections before any move that increases availability. She writes as communications director for One Chance to Grow Up, a nonprofit focused on protecting kids from today’s marijuana.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Lessons from Colorado’s first wave. Legalization hit before labels, serving sizes, and child-resistant packaging were standard; teens absorbed the hype and the harm.
- Not your dad’s ditch weed. High-potency products exploded onto shelves, normalizing heavy THC under a “safe” and “medicinal” sheen. Kids landed in ERs. Mine included.
- Driving, not “designating.” Teens skipped booze, then toked and drove. THC can double crash risk. Safety theater is still dangerous.
- Science gap vs. Schedule III. A federal rebrand would over-promise medical certainty that gold-standard studies haven’t earned. That invites wider youth misuse.
- Build guardrails first. If DC insists on changes, safeguards must precede availability. Colorado’s kids should not be national lab rats.
My Bottom Line
This is a solid dose of uncomfortable truth. Marijuana is trashing our kids. Don’t reschedule it. I used to be libertarian on this. I voted for Amendment 64. I want that vote back. Since legalization, Colorado is not stronger. We are more numb, more checked-out, and more willing to pretend today’s wax and concentrates are the same as a mellow 1970s joint. They are not. They are a psychotic cocktail for young brains.
If you’re an adult and that’s your jam, I’m not your hall monitor. But let’s stop pretending this is harmless. We opened the floodgates, then spent a decade scrambling to add warning labels, dose limits, and child-resistant packaging after kids were already collateral damage. Now Washington wants to paint a medical halo on it with Schedule III. No.
Colorado’s experience is a caution sign for the country. Protect kids first, or better yet, admit the obvious: the social costs dwarf the tax take. I’m ready to say it plainly. We should roll this back. Outlaw the stuff again and stop marketing narcotics to teenagers with candy wrappers and clever vape hardware. Families, schools, and cops live with the fallout while the industry counts receipts.
If Congress insists on tinkering, demand hard guardrails: potency caps, real age-verification, advertising limits that bite, and criminal penalties for youth targeting. But my vote today is simpler. Don’t reschedule. Don’t expand access. Choose kids over cash.
Source: The Gazette
