With the state legislature poised to take up the legalization of marijuana debate this session, community members and legislators came together on Jan. 25 at a forum to discuss the affects of marijuana on the youth population and speak out against legalization of the drug. What almost 100 attendees heard was concern about marijuana’s potentially harmful effects on youth and estimates on the effort’s chance of passing in Hartford.

Sponsored by Guilford DAY (Developmental Asserts for Youth), the panel discussion included health professionals, Guilford DAY student leader Gabby Palumbo, and state representatives Sean Scanlon (D-98) and Vincent Candelora (R-86) and State Senator Ted Kennedy, Jr. (D-12). Legislators spoke about how the issue is perceived in Hartford and joined the nearly 100 audience members in attendance to listen to a presentation from Professor Deepak Cyril D’Souza M.D. of Yale Medical School.

D’Souza, a professor of psychiatry, said research suggests marijuana usage can have detrimental affects on the developing brain. Referring to statistics released by the Colorado Department of Education, D’Souza said the rate of school expulsions has increased since the legalization of marijuana in the state.

“The bottom line is that cannabis use in Colorado is the highest among youths 12- to 17 years old compared to the rest of the country,” he said. “It is almost double the national average.”

Marijuana can have negative affects on cognitive functions such as attention and memory, according to D’Souza who referenced a study known as the Dunedin Longitudinal Study. The study, based in Dunedin, New Zealand, began in the mid-1970s and has been running close to 40 years with researchers collecting data from the study population regularly. Within the study, D’Souza said researchers were able to test cognition prior to cannabis use and after cannabis use.

“If the use of cannabis was persistent, there was a drop in IQ of about eight points,” he said. “These deficits that they found extended beyond IQ and included memory, attention, and many other elements of cognition.”

The IQ deficits were shown to be greater if a subject began cannabis use in their youth, according to D’Souza. While D’Souza said there is evidence showing the negative affects of marijuana on adolescents, how much influence factors such as medical research and financial benefits will have as the debate begins up in Hartford is unclear.

With the 2017 legislative session open as of Jan. 4, bills have been filed by Democrats—including Senate leader, Martin Looney—and Republicans in both the House and the Senate that would legalize marijuana in the state. Unlike states like Massachusetts, Connecticut does not have single-issue ballot questions, leaving the power to legalize on the floor of the General Assembly.

If passed, it’s estimated the state could gain $60- to $65 million in sales tax off the sale of marijuana in the first year alone, according to former state senator Ed Meyer. Legislators representing different parts of Guilford, however, have said they are opposed to legalization.

Kennedy, who said while he supports current medical marijuana legislation and the decriminalization of possession of less than one-half-ounce of marijuana, doesn’t want to see the state move to legalize for financial reasons.

“The people around the country that are touting this as some sort of financial savior for this predicament that we find ourselves in the state is just the wrong policy,” he said. “We should not be trying to solve our financial problems in the state by expanding and taxing the use of marijuana.”

The need for more education on the potential effects of the drug was a shared opinion among all legislators in attendance. Candelora said marijuana is not what it was in the ’60s or ’70s.

“We are seeing an erosion in perception of what marijuana is and what the effects are,” he said. “…The THC levels are triple what they were when I was going through school.”

Candelora also said he doesn’t want to see marijuana pushed the way tobacco and cigarettes were promoted in the ’20s and ’30s.

“That infusion of money back in those days helped promote that drug, and it was very dangerous thing for society...I think marijuana is taking the same path,” he said. “I think it is important to continue to oppose it not because we want to be against weed or pro-prohibition, I think it is just not another addictive substance we should be adding into our communities.”

Scanlon, who is known for his first-term efforts fighting the opioid epidemic, said he has deep reservations about legalization, citing the 900 overdose deaths reported in the state last year.

“In the context of an epidemic that takes more lives than car accidents and gun violence combined, I think we have to be very wearing of what we are doing in the context of legalizing marijuana,” he said.

The move to legalize might not be an easy battle up in Hartford, according to Scanlon, who said the issue is not dividing according to party lines. Overall, Scanlon said this is an issue that needs to be carefully considered not within the context of the state budget woes.

“If you are down on your luck and you are out of money, people probably wouldn’t advise you to go to a casino and put it all on black,” he said. “We are possibly making some pretty serious decisions just in the context of the bad budget cycle that we are currently in.”