(check out my previous post on decriminalizing marijuana, as this one does not work as a stand-alone piece)

Marijuana can be eaten. It’s put in food, tea, cakes, cookies, muffins and even candy bars. Here is a link to a marijuana eatery in California: pot as food.

The NY Times published a story this February about the problems  when Marijuana looks like candy. Edible marijuana is not tamper proof, and young kids will often try to eat sweet food (I remember gobbling down weight watchers caramels that I found in the back of my Mom’s car in the late 70’s). This emphasizes my very publicly stated point: when you legalize something, more people will use it. When you make something sweet (also think energy drinks), more kids will use it.

Another unintended consequence of legalization in Colorado is that dangerous, new versions of marijuana that are illegal in other states are legal in Colorado. Wax, or butane wax, is a super-concentrated form of THC that can keep people “high all day on just one hit.” To learn more about it, click on this: dangerous THC wax in Colorado.

Vaporizers have been around for over a dozen years, but the technology keeps improving. Some vaporizers are made to look like asthma inhalers. Vaporizers do remove some of the carcinogens that people would take in through smoking, but one saleslady I spoke with in Montreal told me how the vaporizers are “much more efficient in getting you high.” Legalization will lead to technology that will lead to stronger pot and stronger ways to use pot.

In a nation with medical and/or legal marijuana, we will see more and more advertisements in newspapers, magazines, the internet and television. Here is a TV ad for medical marijuana from my homestate: marijuana TV ad in NJ. One of problems caused by advertising on TV is that it will become more socially acceptable and more people will use it.

(the below paragraph was added on 4/17/2014)

A 19 year-old college student on spring break jumped to his death in Colorado after eating too many servings of a marijuana cookie. The four friends went to Colorado on a marijuana sampling trip. This is the first known death caused by marijuana since the legalization law went into effect.

(next sentence was added on 5/11/2014)

I told you so.