Marijuana and Church teaching

12 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • OCTOBER 14, 2021

MCC urges people to consider dangers of recreational marijuana NEW SERIES Marijuana and Church teaching With recreational and medical marijuana legal in states across the country, and the Minnesota Legislature considering a regulatory framework for production, sale and possession of the drug for recreational use, The Catholic Spirit begins a four-part series to look at some of the issues involved from a Catholic perspective.

By Joe Ruff The Catholic Spirit

W

hen the Minnesota House passed HF 600 on a vote of 72-61 to legalize recreational marijuana May 13, it brought the state one step closer to joining 19 other states, including Michigan and South Dakota, as well as the District of Columbia.

With Gov. Tim Walz in favor of the legalization, only the Minnesota Senate stands in the way as lawmakers prepare to open the second year of the biennial session Jan. 31.

It is a step the Minnesota Catholic Conference, representing the public policy interests of the Catholic Church in the state, does not want Minnesota to take.

“Our direction on this issue comes from the pope himself,” said Ryan Hamilton, MCC’s government relations associate, in an email exchange with The Catholic Spirit. “In his 2014 address to the International Drug Conference in Rome, Pope Francis said, ‘Attempts, however limited, to legalize so-called ‘recreational drugs’ are not only highly questionable from a legislative standpoint, but they fail to produce the

desired effects.”’

Winona is the new majority leader.

“Jeremy Miller may have a different House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler, outlook and be more willing to put it up DFL-Golden Valley, the legislation’s for discussion,” Winkler said of the sponsor, has argued for legalizing marijuana bill. The legislation does have recreational marijuana in part because bipartisan support, he said, citing the he believes law enforcement efforts fact that six Republicans joined against the drug have failed. The drug is Democrats to pass HF 600. readily available across the state, and Blacks are disproportionately arrested MCC’s Hamilton said he doesn’t and penalized for marijuana possession think the Senate will pass SF 757 in compared with whites, a racial injustice, 2022, but the push to legalize marijuana Winkler told The Catholic Spirit. will not go away. Miller might open the door to debate on the Senate side this “In all my conversations, and I have session, Hamilton said. had a lot of conversations on this issue, I have not had anyone say that the “He has said only that he has current system we use is ‘concerns’ about legalizing much benefit to anyone,” recreational cannabis,” Addiction is Winkler said.

Hamilton said. “He has not dependent on not provided the type of In addition, many states clear and firm statements have legalized recreational the particular of opposition that we use of marijuana, and he thinks Minnesota should characteristics of received from Sen. Gazelka.” step up now to create a a substance, but And while Winkler is regulatory structure that can address legitimate on that substance’s running for Hennepin County Attorney in concerns about youth impact on a given November 2022, he said access, health and road he intends to remain safety. person. majority leader through “The change is coming,” Dr. Vic Vines this legislative session.

Winkler said. “As states The fact 2022 is an around us legalize election year could impact the attention recreational marijuana, it will not be given to legalizing recreational viable for Minnesota to be an island.” marijuana, Hamilton said. “We (MCC Winkler held 15 town hall meetings staff) imagine the attention on in communities across the state on legalizing marijuana will take the form recreational marijuana before of proponents pressuring the Senate to introducing his bill in February. He act on the Winkler bill and blaming any consulted with Walz and 13 state lack of movement toward legalization agencies, held 250 meetings with on their political opponents,” he said. individuals and groups, and the bill Winkler’s bill would allow adults 21 made its way through a dozen House and older to possess in public up to 2 committees before getting to the floor. ounces of cannabis and up to 10 But the Republican-controlled Senate pounds in their homes, and cultivate up did not allow a hearing. HF 600’s to eight plants, four of which could be companion bill, SF 757, has languished. mature.

Then-Senate Majority Leader Paul Among other things, it also would Gazelka of East Gull Lake has stepped focus on developing micro-businesses down from his leadership position to mount a campaign for governor.

Republican Sen. Jeremy Miller of MARIJUANA CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

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CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE and a craft market, in an effort to keep large companies from taking over.

To address racial inequities in previous law enforcement actions against marijuana, the bill would expunge most cannabis convictions, Winkler said. The bill would fund public health awareness campaigns, youth access prevention and substance abuse treatment. It would provide grants, loans, technical assistance and training for small businesses in the trade, require testing and labeling of products, and restrict packaging for dried cannabis and infused products based on dosage size.

While some argue that the black market will undercut a legal market every time, Winkler said HF 600 is not set up as a state revenue engine through its tax structure of marijuana businesses and transactions.

“The goal of our bill is not revenue,” Winkler said, and that should keep costs down.

Hamilton said the bill’s regulatory structure fails in the area that matters most: potency limits on THC, tetrahydrocannabinol, the main psychoactive compound in cannabis.

“Recreational marijuana products tend to be extremely potent,” Hamilton said, with some concentrated oils, waxes and edibles at up to 90% TCH. “This is not the low potency ‘grass’ of yesteryear, making it more dangerous.

The truth is, the average potency of marijuana has skyrocketed since the 1970s, and research demonstrates it is associated with substance abuse disorders, drugged driving crashes, lower IQ and other negative consequences.”

A study published in Biological Psychiatry in 2016, “Changes in Cannabis Potency over the Last Two Decades (1995-2014) — Analysis of Current Data in the United States,” backs Hamilton’s claim, finding that potency of illicit cannabis plant material alone had increased from about 4% in 1995 to 12% in 2014. “This increase in potency poses higher risk of cannabis use, particularly among adolescents,” the report concluded.

Some cannabis concentrates sold in Colorado, Oregon and other states with legalized recreational marijuana have potency rates of 60% to 80%.

Racial inequity found in marijuana enforcement is a concern, Hamilton said, but it can be addressed in separate

LEGALIZING MARIJUANA Colorado and Washington first legalized recreational marijuana in 2012.

Since then, 17 other states, with Connecticut the latest, June 22, and the District of Columbia, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands have followed suit, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Others are: Alaska, Arizona, California, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, South Dakota (tied up in court challenge), Vermont and Virginia.

Thirty-six states, including Minnesota since 2014, as well as the District of Columbia and three U.S. territories allow for medical use of cannabis products. In November 2020, voters in Mississippi passed a ballot initiative to allow for medical use, but it was overturned by the state Supreme Court.

— Joe Ruff legislation. There is no need to set up a for-profit industry that can take advantage of the vulnerable, he said.

“Our view is that the House legalization bill misleads Minnesotans of color by perpetuating the myth that the only solution to disparate enforcement of current marijuana laws is full legalization and commercialization,” said Hamilton, who is Black. “Even though Black and white people use marijuana at similar rates, a Black person is almost four times as likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than a white person.

Meanwhile, the facts reveal that AfricanAmericans are twice as likely to be arrested for marijuana in Colorado and Washington, both states that have legalized recreational use and sales.

“As an omnibus bill, HF 600 conflates credible demands for social justice and criminal justice reform with the profit motives of a small group of privileged investors,” he said. “Social and criminal justice reforms related to marijuana can be implemented as stand-alone policy measures without necessitating the legalization of recreational marijuana use and enabling a for-profit industry to prey on the poor and vulnerable.”

Dr. Vic Vines, a former Midwest regional medical director in Center City

for the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation’s addiction and mental health services, said recreational marijuana is problematic because while cannabis doesn’t have a reputation for being addictive, it can lead some people into dependency.

“Addiction is not dependent on the particular characteristics of a substance, but on that substance’s impact on a given person,” Vines said. “Some people can occasionally use heroin and not become addicted. But most people can’t.

Some people can use moderate or even heavier amounts of alcohol and not become addicted, but depending on a person’s genetic makeup, others will become addicted.”

“The issue concerning me is that when we make something available recreationally, we give some (credence to the) idea it is not a problem. But in some, (marijuana) can lead to dependency, mental illness and learning disabilities,” Vines said. “Especially young people.”

Minnesota legalized medical marijuana in 2014. Until this year, it was one of the strictest programs in the country because it required all products to be in liquid, oil and pill forms. It also was relatively expensive. That changed May 18 with passage of a bill that beginning March 1 — or until appropriate testing is in place for dried raw cannabis used as medicine — will allow patients to smoke the dried plant, a less expensive product. The state’s medical marijuana manufacturers are LeafLine Labs and Vireo Health.

MCC has been neutral on medical marijuana, arguing that whether it is an “effective therapeutic is a question of some debate, and one best left between doctors and individual patients,” Hamilton said.

“That said, the Legislature’s decision this year to allow smokeable medical marijuana seems incredibly imprudent and will have to be well monitored to prevent it from turning into the backdoor legalization of recreational cannabis,” he said.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration “has not found smoked marijuana to be either safe or effective as medicine for any condition, let alone anxiety or PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder),” Hamilton said.

The federal government considers marijuana an illegal drug but has largely left enforcement to states.

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CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE The primary difference between medical and recreational marijuana is the prescription required by a doctor, Hamilton said. Conditions currently allowed for treatment by medical marijuana in Minnesota include cancer, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, seizures, posttraumatic stress disorders, chronic pain, and autism.

But it’s important to note that studies show the “average medical marijuana user is a 32-year-old white male with a history of cocaine and alcohol abuse and no history of life-threatening illness,” Hamilton said. “In states with medical marijuana, less than 5% of users have cancer, HIV, glaucoma or terminal illness, which are among the most commonly cited reasons for medical marijuana use,” he said.

Statistics from the medical cannabis program in Minnesota, kept by the Department of Health’s Office of Medical Cannabis, show that as of Dec. 31, 2020, about 7% of patients in the

program were suffering from cancer, 1% had HIV/AIDS, 1% had glaucoma and 1% had a terminal illness.

About 63% of patients reported having intractable or chronic pain, 25% had PTSD and 11% had severe and persistent muscle spasms.

About 24,724 patients in the program, or 86.7%, were white, the office reported. About 6% were Black, 3.4% American Indian, 3.2% Hispanic, 1.3% Asian, and 2.4% Hawaiian/Pacific Islander or “other.”

Some proponents of recreational marijuana also use medical conditions as arguments for legalizing recreational use, such as suggesting that Minnesota’s medical marijuana system was overly restrictive and doses were too expensive.

Winkler said recreational marijuana could be a form of self-medication, but one that could be carried out under the care of a doctor. Even as self-medication, marijuana carries low risks of harm compared to other alternatives, Winkler said. Hamilton and MCC have criticized those arguments.

“Allowing recreational use as a means of self-medicating is a bandage, not a

solution,” Hamilton said. “It seems that reform of the medical marijuana system would be the logical step.”

MCC will continue to oppose efforts to legalize recreational marijuana because Catholics must help lawmakers understand the principled reasons for opposing legalization of a recreational cannabis industry, Hamilton said. Odds are good that if the effort to legalize fails this session, similar bills will be introduced in 2023, he said.

“We want to make sure legislators, and their constituents, are hearing from more than industry proponents who only give one side of the story,” he said.

“MCC’s opposition moving forward will be based on standing up against an industry that has proven to do more harm than good to the poor and vulnerable and the common good,” Hamilton said. “Specifically, this means we will be working with our partners to dispel myths about legalization, expose false binary (dual) choices which proponents so often portray as the only way, and share empirical evidence of the harmful effects of legalization.”

BISHOP COZZENS: TAKE ACTION On April 15, Auxiliary Bishop Andrew Cozzens spoke at the MCC’s Catholics at the Capitol event about the dangers of HF 600, which would legalize and regulate recreational marijuana for general use by anyone 21 or older. While the Minnesota Senate did not pass the bill, the House did, and the bill remains active for the second half of the biennial session, set to begin Jan. 31. His address follows.

This issue, about marijuana, is one of the very important issues where the Catholic voice needs to be heard at the Capitol, because we believe that we’re introducing another vice into our society that’s going to lower public morality and really harm our people, most especially our young people. The legislators at the Capitol need to hear about the damaging effects of this potential bill.

The bill is called HF 600, and those who are proposing the bill argue that we need to lower arrest records, especially among minority populations, and relieve criminal records among minority populations, and in order to do that we need to legalize marijuana.

Now, we could have a very good policy discussion about that particular issue. Because that is an important issue to pay attention to.

But the fact is in the states where they have legalized marijuana, arrest records among African Americans have doubled, and in general, marijuana-related arrests have tripled. And so, the policy promises that they are making don’t hold true.

We need to actually begin to think about the reality of what happens if we pass this bill. Which is not simply a bill that’s dealing with a small or narrow policy issue, but which in fact is seeking to legalize marijuana for our whole society.

The key is this, if this bill passes in Minnesota, more people will be smoking marijuana, and that’s not good for Minnesotans.

I want to read you a quote from Pope Francis, who actually did address this issue in a conference at the Vatican on the problem of drugs nationally and internationally. The Holy Father said this: “Attempts, however limited, to legalize so-called recreational drugs are not only highly questionable from a legislative standpoint, but they fail

to produce the desired effects.”

That is, when we legalize these drugs, it doesn’t regulate them in the way that we would hope. It actually increases their use.

It’s very interesting, because we all know the problems we have in our society with smoking and vaping, and especially how prominent that is among young people. And what drives it? Well, we know, it’s the money that comes from big tobacco companies. And we’re looking now at introducing another for-profit industry that drives smoking and vaping of marijuana, and we’re somehow pretending it’s not going to affect our young people.

That, of course, is a kind of moral blindness. For we know that whenever marijuana becomes legal in a state, it becomes more readily accessible to young people, even though the law says you have to be 21 to have it. And, there are many other negative effects. For example, in states like Colorado and Washington, almost 20% of auto accidents involve some form of marijuana use. It affects the culture negatively in general.

The final point I want to make

today is that our young people are struggling. Our young people are living in a very difficult world, and the COVID-19 crisis has simply made that worse. We all know that loneliness, anxiety and depression are on the rise among our young people. And the studies show that marijuana use increases the risk of suicide and depression among young people. And so, here we are, with a real crisis on our hands with how we really do care for young people in our society, and we’re about to introduce a mind-altering drug into our society that we know is addictive and will harm them.

My brothers and sisters, we can have a good conversation about criminal justice reform and having just sentences for those who are caught possessing marijuana. But if we legalize marijuana, we’re going to be introducing a whole problem, driven by corporations, that will in fact be seeking to spread the use of this drug for profit. That’s not the way Minnesota should go. So, I hope that you speak clearly about this with your legislators when you have the chance. Thank you, and God bless you.

13 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • OCTOBER 14, 2021

Prudence dictates Church stance against legalizing recreational marijuana

By Joe Ruff The Catholic Spirit

M

arijuana in itself is not evil, but people can easily abuse it, so prudence, or good judgment, dictates it not be legalized for recreational use.

That is the basic teaching of the Catholic Church when it comes to making pot legal. It comes into play particularly now in Minnesota because last May the Democratic-controlled House voted 72-61 to pass HF 600, which among other things sets up a regulatory framework for people 21 and older to buy and sell weed. The second of this session’s two years opens Jan. 31, leaving plenty of time for the Republican-controlled Senate to hold hearings, debate and vote on the bill.

The legislation does not have the support of the Minnesota Catholic Conference, which represents the public policy interests of the state’s bishops.

The conference has argued that legalizing marijuana will widen its use, make it more available to people under 21 and increase dangers on the road from drivers impaired by the drug.

“HF 600 is a bad bill,” Ryan Hamilton, MCC’s government relations associate, told the House Commerce, Finance and Policy Committee Feb. 17. “This bill is bad for adolescents, bad for our brothers and sisters with substance abuse problems, bad for those that use our highways, and bad for the common good.”

Msgr. Steven Rohlfs, a spiritual director at The Seminaries of St. Paul in St. Paul and a moral theologian with a specialty in medical ethics, told The Catholic Spirit Sept. 16 that marijuana is not “intrinsically disordered,” or something that by its very nature is not right with God, such as the acts of abortion, euthanasia and contraception. But “for most people, most of the time,” using marijuana is not a good idea, Msgr. Rohlfs said. With the best interests of individuals and society in mind, the Church opposes its recreational use. That can be said for many drugs, including alcohol and prescription medicines, he said.

“No drug out there is always and everywhere wrong, as a substance,”

Msgr. Rohlfs said. “It’s part of God’s creation. It has some good to it. The Church is opposed to recreational drugs as a prudential decision. For most people, most of the time, it is not a good idea. Whatever drug ‘X’ is, you can always give me a case it would be good for this person at this particular time. The problem is generalizing that.”

Pope Francis has spoken strongly against recreational use of marijuana or other drugs, including a 2014 address to an International Drug Enforcement Conference in Rome and 2013 World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro.

“Let me state this in the clearest terms possible: The problem with drug use is not solved with drugs,” the pope said at the drug enforcement conference. “Drug addiction is an evil, and with evil there can be no yielding or compromise.”

Nor does legalization work on a practical level, the pope said.

“Attempts, however limited, to legalize so-called ‘recreational drugs,’ are not only highly questionable from a legislative standpoint, but they fail to produce the desired effects,” Pope Francis said.

At World Youth Day, the pope proclaimed to the crowd that “the scourge of drug trafficking, that favors violence and sows the seeds of suffering and death, requires society as a whole to act with courage,” adding that legalization would not yield “a reduction in the spread and influence of drug addiction.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church addresses drug use as well, stating “The use of drugs inflicts very grave damage on human health and

life. Their use, except on strictly therapeutic grounds, is a grave offense.

Clandestine production of and trafficking in drugs are scandalous practices. They constitute direct co-operation in evil, since they encourage people to practices gravely contrary to the moral law” (2291). The Catechism also demands protection by the political community of the family against such threats to security and health as drugs, pornography and alcoholism (2211).

Father Chris Collins, vice president of mission at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul and a systematic theologian, or one who seeks to arrange religious truths in a consistent whole, emphasized the dignity of each human person and God’s plan for human flourishing.

“Any abuse of a substance is not good for the person,” Father Collins said. “Every person should be weighing those considerations. Is this helping me be fully alive?”

Social considerations include protecting the mental health of young people, including concerns about a sense of isolation and lack of desire to do meaningful work that recreational drugs can bring, he said.

Father Collins acknowledged the need to discuss the issue of marijuana, and the changing landscape as medical use of marijuana has come into play.

“Medical marijuana has been seen as a potential good,” he said. “But the next step is recreational use? That is definitely more problematic.”

Even as MCC speaks out strongly against recreational marijuana, the conference has been neutral on medical use of the drug, which has been legal in Minnesota since 2014.

Not taking a stand one way or another is a nuanced position, Msgr. Rohlfs said.

“People who oppose it (medical marijuana) will say this is a slippery slope. Which is right,” he said. “And if you deny it (medical marijuana), people will say, ‘You want this person to suffer.’ It just depends. It is a prudential decision. Would use of this medical marijuana be a prudent decision at this time? And the Church doesn’t want to get into how you regulate that.”

6 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • January 6, 2022

Legalizing recreational marijuana Studies show failure in reducing disparity in Black arrest rates, creating minority business owners

By Joe Ruff The Catholic Spirit As the Minnesota Legislature considers legalizing recreational marijuana in the second of its twoyear biennium starting Jan. 31, opponents of the move argue that benefits for minority communities promoted in other states — in the form of correcting racial disparities in arrests or including minorities as business owners — have not delivered.

Similar efforts embedded in the Minnesota legislation are destined to fail as well, they say. And the safety and health risks to all communities heavily outweigh any benefits of legalizing the drug for recreational use, argue anti-marijuana advocates, including the Minnesota Catholic Conference.

Blacks, for example, who across the country have been disproportionately arrested for marijuana use or possession and other offenses, continued to endure marijuanarelated arrests at a higher rate than whites — even as overall marijuana arrests fell — in two states, Colorado and Washington, that legalized recreational marijuana in 2012, according to a 2016 study by the San Francisco-based Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice.

In Washington in 2008, the arrest rate for marijuana offenses among Blacks was 877.8 per 100,000 people, more than double what it was among all other races, which were 390.5 per 100,000, the study found. In 2014, the arrest rate for marijuana-related offenses, such as using marijuana in a public area or driving while under the influence, fell for Blacks to 57.2 per 100,000, but for non-Blacks it dropped to 27.3, the center reported.

In Colorado, the arrest rate for marijuana-related offenses among Blacks was 601.3 per 100,000 people in 2008, and for non-Blacks it was 293.3. In 2014, the arrest rate had dropped to 242.2 per 100,000 among

Blacks, but went even lower, to 103.8, among non-Blacks, according to the study.

“The forces that contribute to racial disparities under prohibition are clearly still in place after legalization,” such as police spending more time in poorer, Black neighborhoods than white neighborhoods, arresting on-the-street drug dealing, and not investigating what might be happening in high-rise apartments and condominiums, said Mike Males, a senior research fellow at the center who compared the data.

Continued racial disparities in arrests run contrary to what advocates of legalizing recreational marijuana have promised, Males said. “I think it’s something that people advocating to legalize marijuana have to answer for,” he said.

MCC’s government relations associate, Ryan Hamilton, said government surveys show that Black and white people use marijuana at roughly the same rate. “Despite this similarity in use, research has found that Black Americans are nearly 3.5 times as likely to be arrested for marijuana possession. So, at least in terms of RYAN HAMILTON possession crimes, there is a disparity in how marijuana laws are being enforced.”

Will Jones, director of communications and outreach for Alexandria, Virginia-based Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), said he has reviewed similar studies around the country. It is a mixed bag, but in some of the 19 states where recreational marijuana is legal, overall arrest rates of Blacks actually increased, even as fewer Blacks and others were arrested for specific marijuana offenses, such as possession, he said.

“What we’ve found is that equity in the war on drugs is a great concept,” Jones told The Catholic Spirit. “But no state has been able to do that.”

SAM, along with many other antimarijuana activists and the Minnesota Catholic Conference, the public

policy voice of the Catholic Church in Minnesota, argue that marijuana should not be legalized. But it could be decriminalized, with penalties better fitting the nature of the crime.

“We’re saying decriminalize, but don’t commercialize,” said Judson “Kim” Bemis, chairman of Smart Approaches to Marijuana Minnesota, one of many state affiliates of the national group.

A 15- or 16-yearold caught in possession of marijuana should not have to deal with a criminal record that could JUDSON make it hard to find (KIM) BEMIS a job, Bemis said.

“Far too many minorities have been hassled through the marijuana laws,” he said. “Being caught with two or three marijuana gummy bears could be a felony. That’s not straight. We are advocating a graduated system. The first couple of arrests could be like a traffic ticket, not placed on someone’s record. At some point you need a stick. Three or four arrests might lead to drug court or a stiffer penalty.”

Minnesota legislation for legalizing recreational marijuana, HF 600, which passed in the state’s House of Representatives last year, and its companion bill in the Senate, SF 757, would expunge criminal records of some marijuana offenses and amend marijuana-related criminal penalties. But it would not be able to curtail disproportionate arrest rates of minorities compared with whites, an issue that goes beyond marijuana legislation, Bemis said.

In Colorado, discretionary searches by the State Highway Patrol dropped by more than half after that state’s 2012 legalization of recreational marijuana, but search rates remained significantly higher for Blacks and Hispanics from 2013 through 2015, SAM’s Jones said.

Overall arrests of African Americans in Colorado actually rose from 2012 to 2018, perhaps because marijuana lowers inhibitions, cuts into the ability to make good decisions and MARIJUANA CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

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CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE increases encounters with police, Jones said.

Recreational marijuana shops, such as in Colorado, also tend to be disproportionality placed in areas where the demand for marijuana is higher, where there are higher rates of poverty and a greater number of alcohol outlets, indicating that when owners chose where to locate dispensaries, they followed the data to low-income and minority neighborhoods, Jones said.

The MCC’s Hamilton said the true good, rooted in justice, is equitable enforcement. To say that legalization of recreational marijuana — a removal of accountability — is a just solution to disparate enforcement among races runs counter to teachings of the Catholic Church about human flourishing, he said. “Because it implies that our society is incapable or unwilling to enforce our laws fairly and therefore the only solution is to permit vice,” he said.

Results also have been disappointing in efforts to include minorities in the industry as growers, distributors and shop owners, critics say. In Illinois, which legalized recreational pot in 2019, a cannabis dispensary lottery system was revamped and expanded

last July to include more “social equity applicants” after it was found no marijuana businesses were majority Black, Latino or women-owned, due to a botched scoring system.

While percentages vary state to state, across the country minorities own less than 10% of all the businesses in the marijuana industry, Bemis said. In Colorado last year, 2.9% of marijuana businesses were owned

by Blacks, 7.7% by Latinos and 83.7% by whites, he said. According to U.S. Census data released in October, in 2019 approximately 18.7% of U.S. employer businesses overall were minority-owned.

Even if minority ownership increased, it is not a good business to own, unless the owner is looking to sell addiction, Bemis said. “You get repeat clientele,” he said.

Attempts to include minority ownership of marijuana-related businesses in HF 600 also would fail Minnesotans, said Bemis, 68, an entrepreneur in Minneapolis who has been involved in digital programming and marketing of addiction recovery programs.

The bill would set up grants and loans through nonprofits and other organizations to help “social equity applicants” grow, distribute and sell marijuana. Such applicants would include people living in areas where the poverty rate is 20% or more, or

that experienced a disproportionately large amount of cannabis enforcement.

But starting a business costs a great deal of money. Loans and grants can quickly run out, Bemis said. Because marijuana remains illegal on the federal level, banks are not keen on getting involved, he said.

“The trouble is, they (many startups) run out of money,” he said.

In the marijuana industry, that often leaves the field to big business and private investors, he said. Large companies often take on assumed names that are hard to trace, recruit a member of a minority community to go in on the deal and then take control of the business, he said.

Bob Gilligan, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Illinois, said in the two years that the state has seen legalized recreational marijuana, it has witnessed a rise in crime, a larger black market for marijuana and other drugs, and an increase of psychosis and other mental health ailments. But with pot sales hitting $1.9 billion and total tax collections on those sales at more than $560 million, there is no political will to talk about the costs of legalization, he said.

“All of these things together are not good for society,” he said. And with the COVID-19 pandemic, people are turning to drugs and alcohol to numb

7 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • MARCH 10, 2022

Money and marijuana: Big players on field in Minnesota

By Joe Ruff The Catholic Spirit In 2019, tobacco giant Altria, owner of Marlboro, invested $1.8 billion in Canadian cannabis company Cronos Group. The year before, Constellation Brands, the maker of Corona and Modelo beers, put $4 billion into Canopy Growth, Canada’s largest medical marijuana maker.

A likely impetus? Canada — which legalized medical marijuana in 2001 — approved recreational use of the drug effective Oct. 17, 2018.

And now, as an increasing number of states approve medical and recreational use of marijuana, big tobacco and big alcohol companies are setting their sights on the U.S. market. Early last year, Altria, Constellation, the National Association of Convenience Stores and other groups launched the Coalition

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Leafline Labs in St. Paul sells cannabis for medical use. for Cannabis Policy, Education, and Regulation (cpear.org) to focus lobbying

on federal and state legalization of recreational and medical use of the drug.

Big-company moves and money into marijuana are not confined to the national and international stage.

It’s happening in Minnesota, where medical marijuana has been legal since 2014 and there is a push to legalize recreational cannabis.

In the past two months, Minnesota’s two home-grown cannabis companies and the only licensed medical marijuana growers and dispensers in the state — Leafline Industries and Good Growth Holdings — were purchased by larger Chicago companies that operate in multiple states. Green Thumb Industries, now incorporated in British Columbia, Canada, acquired Leafline in January. Verano Holdings acquired MARIJUANA CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

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CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE Goodness Growth Holdings in early February.

For opponents of recreational marijuana — including the Minnesota Catholic Conference and Smart Approaches to Marijuana Minnesota — big-money maneuvering over a drug that can impair drivers and workers, lead to dependency, mental illness and learning disabilities, particularly among the young, does not bode well for the common good.

“The more commercial interests get engaged to promote legalization of recreational marijuana, the harder our fight becomes,” said John Hausladen, president and CEO of the Minnesota Trucking Association, which belongs to a group formed in January by MCC and others called Minnesotans Against Marijuana Legalization (see sidebar).

“There’s a lot of pressure, resources, lobbying.”

“Any industry whose aim is to profit off addiction, vice or suffering must be of grave concern to all Catholics because of the negative impacts, not only on human dignity, but because of the risk to one’s eternal soul,” said Ryan Hamilton, MCC’s government relations associate.

Luke Niforatos, executive vice president of the national Smart Approaches to Marijuana, based in Virginia, said SAM has been warning for years about the impact of big tobacco and alcohol companies on the marijuana market.

“These multinational corporations see the looming marijuana market as their next big investment and have invested billions to take it over,” he said.

The art of lobbying is in play, as well, Niforatos said. “These companies have

deployed armies of lobbyists at state houses across this nation to advance policies that serve only their profits.

Their efforts come at the expense of our kids and public health.”

Paul Aasen, president of the Minnesota Safety Council, which also belongs to the recently formed MAML, said the easiest solution is not to legalize recreational marijuana. “That would be simpler, safer” than creating special education, health care and enforcement efforts around the drug, he said.

The bill in the Minnesota Senate, SF 757, and its companion bill that passed last year in the House, HF 600, do not provide adequate resources and structure for a recreational marijuana industry, Aasen said. He noted that a study in Colorado found that its recreational marijuana industry costs that state $4.50 in economic and social costs for every $1 gained in tax revenue.

“There ought to be a big public debate just about the money,” he said.

Hamilton said the presence of large marijuana companies in Minnesota also casts doubt on promises from recreational marijuana proponents that they can create a small, craft market and promote ownership by minorities.

The sponsor of HF 600, House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler, DFLGolden Valley, told The Catholic Spirit he believes the bill protects against big-money investments in recreational marijuana because it would license companies for only one step in the process, such as cultivating the plant or selling it retail. The kind of vertical integration already seen in medical marijuana in Minnesota could be limited to that marketplace, he said.

Judson (Kim) Bemis, chairman of Smart Approaches to Marijuana Minnesota, said further complicating the picture is that beginning March 1, medical marijuana in Minnesota

expanded from pills and oils to allowing smokable cannabis, and Aug. 1 the offerings will include edibles such as gummies and chews.

“It’s a slippery slope,” Bemis said of maintaining strictly medical use of cannabis in the face of products that are easy to ingest, and in some cases, harder to measure. “How do you prescribe smoking? The edible situation is, I think, even more serious.”

Aasen cautioned that unlike alcohol, there are no reliable measures by which to determine marijuana impairment. In addition, people who use marijuana to the point of being impaired often mix it with alcohol or other drugs, which presents another set of challenges, he said. “There’s no clear path at the moment to managing (marijuana use) even as well or as poorly was we’ve managed alcohol,” Aasen said.

“Interweave all of these and you have somebody who shouldn’t be operating a drill press or driving a car.”

In a direct link to tobacco products, Hamilton said, Good Growth’s third quarter earnings report noted its Sept.

1, 2021, announcement that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had issued a notice of allowance for the patent application of its subsidiary, Resurgent Biosciences, to process and deliver moist snuff from cannabis plants.

“The tobacco industry wouldn’t have any interest in creating a marijuana snuff, right?” Hamilton said sarcastically.

To counter the push to legalize recreational marijuana in Minnesota, Catholics should contact their legislators, Hamilton said. “Catholics can help combat industry-driven misinformation and pop-culture narratives that have dominated the debate thus far,” he said. “We do not need more means for addiction.”

BUSINESS CONCERNS Trucking and busing, food processing, utility and law enforcement groups have banded together in a coalition against legalizing recreational marijuana in Minnesota.

It’s a force that opponents of the drug hope will move more lawmakers to their side of the argument.

“When it (HF 600 to legalize recreational marijuana) passed

the House last year, there wasn’t such a strong organization that had put its stake in the ground,” said John Hausladen, president and CEO of the Minnesota Trucking Association.

“Proponents were aggressive and organized in their messaging.”

Now, Minnesotans Against Marijuana Legalization,

announced in January, includes groups such as the Minnesota Catholic Conference, the Minnesota Safety Council, the Insurance Federation of Minnesota, Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association, and Midwest Food Products Association. It provides a solid base from which to invite others to join the debate, Hausladen said.

“This is just a tactical stake in the ground early,” he said, noting

that while HF 600’s companion bill in the Senate, SF 757, has not gained much traction this session, the effort to create a market for recreational marijuana in Minnesota will not go away.

“Our coalition is in this for the long haul,” Hausladen said, “just as we think others (opponents) are in for the long haul.”

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MARIJUANA CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE The trucking industry is concerned about legalizing recreational marijuana for several reasons, including road and worker safety, Hausladen said. “We believe it will make roads less safe,” he said.

“Anything that degrades public safety is bad public policy.”

Recreational marijuana also would erode the workforce, particularly for the trucking industry, which tests regularly for drugs or alcohol among its drivers and enforces zero tolerance, Hausladen said.

Already there are driver, parts and equipment shortages and significant supply chain delays because of the COVID-19

pandemic, he said. Add something like recreational marijuana testing and penalties and the challenge would become even greater, he said.

Ryan Hamilton, MCC’s government relations associate, said creating a commercial recreational marijuana industry would impact many areas of life. It is natural that a broad coalition of organizations would come together in opposition, he said.

“The opposition to commercialized marijuana is based on more than philosophical, moralistic or religious perspectives,” Hamilton said. “The founders of MAML wanted to create a rally point and platform for stakeholders who are concerned about the tangible consequences that would come

from commercializing marijuana and normalizing its use.”

Those who argue marijuana is no worse than alcohol, and perhaps less dangerous than that drug, might want to consider the dangers of any drug that can cause impairment, said Ken Winters, research adviser for Smart Approaches to Marijuana Minnesota, which also belongs to MAML, and a senior scientist in the Minnesota branch of the Oregon Research Institute.

“A person is an unsafe driver when high on THC (tetrahydrocannabinol, the chemical responsible for most of marijuana’s psychological effects), just as one is an unsafe driver when drunk on alcohol,” said Winters. “Alcohol is more

damaging to an unborn fetus than nicotine or THC. But THC interferes with brain development more than alcohol.”

THC also “alters more profoundly the brain chemistry that increases risk for mental illness compared to alcohol or nicotine,” said Winters, a clinical psychologist and professor for 25 years in the psychiatry department of the University of Minnesota who specializes in assessment and treatment of addictions, including adolescent drug abuse and other adolescent health issues.

“It’s not a harmless drug,” Winters said of marijuana. “It’s more potent than ever before. And if it’s legalized as recreation, more people will use it.”

— Joe Ruff

7-8 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • JUNE 30, 2022

High-potency marijuana, mental health challenges lead to son’s suicide

By Joe Ruff The Catholic Spirit Heather and Randy Bacchus have been grieving since their 21-year-old son, Randy Michael Bacchus III, took his own life one year ago in Colorado while suffering from cannabis-induced psychosis.

But the parishioners of St. Mary of the Lake in White Bear Lake, parents also of three daughters, are determined to share their story to help others understand the dangerous impact of high-potency marijuana that is replacing the less potent “weed” of the 1970s and beyond.

All this even as a bill before the Minnesota Legislature, passed by the House last year and moribund in the Senate this year, would make recreational marijuana legal and set up a framework to grow, package and sell the drug.

“We didn’t realize at the time what the weed really was,” said Randy Bacchus, 53, of their son’s marijuana use, which began at age 15. “Back in the day, the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s, THC (the psychoactive agent in cannabis) was about 2% to 5%. Today, the concentrates, a dab, or vape, is at 30%, 40%, up to 90%.”

“I thought it was quasi-harmless,” Randy said. But as their son’s struggles with marijuana grew — and the family

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Heather and Randy Bacchus hold a photograph of their late son, Randy Michael Bacchus III, in their home in Mahtomedi. tried to help him with counseling, a wilderness therapy session in Utah, changes in high schools, asking him to leave the house, also inviting him back into the house — they learned more about the drug he was using.

“It’s so strong, the potency,” Randy said. “Once he started smoking weed, we saw a real change.”

Their son, who struggled from a very young age with learning, anxiety and impulse control, felt marijuana helped him get through difficult times, his father said. But Randy and Heather noted an uptick in anxiety

when they knew their son was not using marijuana. He grew both more aggressive and withdrawn. Marijuana appeared to make their son’s mental health challenges worse.

At age 18, graduated from high school, their son moved to Colorado in 2018. He had been accepted into the University of Colorado in Boulder.

His parents hoped he would find work and establish residency to lower tuition costs. The change began well, with their son landing a job in real estate leasing and attending a community college. But their son’s anxiety ramped up and he suffered from headaches. He applied for and received a medical marijuana card.

Recreational marijuana in Colorado was also legal.

By June 2020, their son was suffering from paranoia. He thought his roommate was “trying to do things to him that really didn’t make sense,” his father said. “We didn’t understand, but in hindsight …”

It reached the point where they believe their son had cannabis-induced psychosis, breaks from reality that can include hearing voices, which sometimes dictate behavior that people in their right minds would not contemplate. Their son was contrite, loving but at the same time paranoid and delusional in the days before he MARIJUANA CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

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CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE committed suicide in Denver in July 2021, his parents said.

“The irony is, my son thought marijuana was saving his life,” Randy said. “And it took his life.”

Reaching out in their pain, the Bacchuses found other families whose children have suffered similar fates from cannabis use, including Laura Stack, founder of Johnny’s Ambassadors in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, near Denver. Stack’s son, Johnny, killed himself at age 19 in 2019, and she started her nonprofit organization to raise awareness and educate teenagers, parents and communities about the dangers of high-THC marijuana to adolescent brain development, mental illness and suicide.

High-potency marijuana impacts neural pathways in the brain, particularly in adolescent brains that are still developing, Stack explains on the group’s website, johnnysambassadors.org. The harmful combination of a still-forming mind and high frequency use of high-potency THC products equals cannabis-induced psychosis, Stack says. Repeated CIP incidents can trigger schizophrenia or other mental illness.

Even when the cannabis is withdrawn, the psychosis remains.

“This is what happened to my beautiful boy,” she said.

Heather Bacchus has trained as an ambassador with Stack’s organization and hopes to speak at schools, and perhaps even testify before the Minnesota Legislature, about the dangers of highly potent marijuana. Stack said she knows Bacchus and understands what she — and many other parents — are going through. “She told me,” Stack said in an email interview about Bacchus’ efforts. “So glad to hear the stories are getting out.”

Her own son, Stack said, had no medical or mental health issues until he began using marijuana at age 14 at a party, when he was a freshman in high school. As their son’s involvement in the drug deepened, they turned to group programs, therapists, three mental health stays, inpatient and outpatient programs, she said.

“Three days before he passed, he came over for dinner,” Stack explains on her organization’s website. “He lived in our condo a couple miles down the street and would often pop in for a home-cooked meal.

“I need to tell you that you were right,’ he said to me. ‘Right about what?’ I ask. ‘Right about the marijuana. You told me weed would hurt my brain, and it’s ruined my mind and my life. You were right all along.

I’m sorry, and I love you.’ He died by suicide three days later.”

Johnny’s Ambassadors has 7,500 people on its mailing list, from all over the United States. It has 10 doctors, therapists and researchers on its scientific advisory board — specialists in child psychiatry, addiction psychiatry, emergency and pain medicine, cannabis use and psychosis.

The board includes practicing clinical psychologist Aaron Weiner, who in his practice in Lake Forest, Illinois, specializes in treating people suffering from drug or alcohol use or behavioral addictions. Recreational marijuana for people 21 and older has been legal in Illinois since 2020.

“I would say that as the advertisements have scaled up, as the industry has scaled up, we’ve seen marijuana use go up,” Weiner said in an email interview. “And certainly, the industry has a huge hand in this because they make more money the more (of it) they sell, and the more they normalize the product.”

The biggest danger of marijuana to adolescents is “a direct link between marijuana and brain health, in a negative direction,” Weiner said. “We know that when you put THC into the developing brain, it changes both the structure of the brain over time, as well as the function of the brain over time, in very negative ways.”

“Most people now will say, yes, marijuana use can cause psychosis, in a subset of cases,” he said.

The danger is not as high in adults because the brain isn’t growing after age 25, but addiction to marijuana and psychosis can happen to adults, too, Weiner said.

A recent study published in the journal Psychiatric Research found that there were 129,000 hospital discharges for marijuanainduced psychosis across the country in 2017, with a higher prevalence of such discharges in areas with more liberal cannabis legalization laws, Weiner said.

“That’s a really big deal,” he said.

While states legalizing recreational marijuana ban its use for all but adults, adolescents model what they see around them, he said. “That’s why we consistently see that recreational policies lead to particularly young adult use, ages 18 to 25.

But then, we’re also seeing more and more evidence that youth use also goes up.”

Randy Bacchus said it is hard for him to step up and talk about the loss of his son. But he wants to help get the truth out about marijuana, a story not being told by companies that sell addiction, he said.

“I can really clam up,” he said. But relying on his faith has strengthened his faith.

“We can either become bitter or better,” he said. “I think we can get better.”

Heather said she and her husband “have a lot of energy. And we have a lot of pain. I’m taking that energy and making something good.”

LEGISLATIVE ACTION A failed attempt in May to move a bill that would legalize recreational marijuana in Minnesota from its stalled position in a Senate committee to full debate on the Senate floor does not mean efforts to put more pot on the streets are over, said Ryan Hamilton, government relations specialist with the Minnesota Catholic Conference, which represents the public policy interests of the local Church.

Support for legalizing recreational cannabis can be seen by the Democratic-controlled House passing the Senate proposal’s companion bill last year, Hamilton said. And while the procedural move this year in the Republican-controlled Senate did not come close to its needed super-majority vote, it still garnered 31 votes in failing 31-33, Hamilton pointed out. Someone is likely to introduce similar cannabis measures in the next legislative session, he said.

“There is support in the Legislature, obviously,” Hamilton said. “But we still have time to provide the empirical information from other states that the harms of legalizing recreational cannabis outweigh any benefits.”

Harms include negative mental health impacts, particularly in youths and young adults, and diminished traffic safety as more people drive under the influence of marijuana, Hamilton said.

Efforts to keep recreational marijuana off the streets while supporting equal justice include introducing bills that address racial inequities in enforcing and sentencing for possession of small amounts of cannabis, Hamilton said. Trucking companies, school bus drivers, public safety advocates, insurance, food and beverage associations and others this year also joined forces in a group MCC helped found called Minnesotans Against Marijuana Legalization. Details are at minnesotansagainstmarijuanalegalization.org.

Seeing businesses oppose recreational marijuana helped stiffen the backs of Republican senators, Hamilton said. In addition to the coalition, other interest groups said they were not going to entertain the idea of legalizing cannabis, he said.

Medical marijuana has been legal in Minnesota since 2014.

“On the upside, the issue is such that we have all those other states that have done this,” Hamilton said. “The proof comes out from that. Numbers don’t lie. This is not just a philosophical argument. Our position is backed by data and measurable harm.”

Nineteen states, Washington, D.C., and Guam have legalized recreational marijuana.

Thirty-nine states and Washington, D.C., have legalized medical marijuana.

— Joe Ruff