As the details and development of legal cannabis are beginning to provide data for municipalities, social service organizations are still raising concerns about the potential negative impacts that the new law could have on the youth of Connecticut. Town zoning official are now in the process of extending the moratorium on retail sales until the end of the year to better ascertain how, or even if, Guilford will adapt to the new law.
According to state statistics, drug and alcohol use among Connecticut teens has decreased significantly in the last decade or so. The reporting of teen use of marijuana has dropped by up to 50 percent, according to several gathering agencies including the CDC, but organizations like DAY are seeing firsthand how that may be changing for youth.
Bo Huhn, board member for DAY (Developing Assets for Youth), partners with Guilford Youth & Family Services on programming and intervention projects. Huhn said the organization is extremely concerned with the unknowns associated with cannabis legalization.
“Frankly, it’s not the doing away with criminal penalties that we saw as the problem, it was the commercialization that is the problem,” said Huhn. “Having people being able to make a buck, selling it, advertising it, pushing it, is not something that is healthy for people. Putting that profit motive in there increases the use.
