Original article posted here.

What do you get when you legalize marijuana?  More emergency room visits and an increased cost to society.

You may think this is a study from Denver Colorado, but it is not.  Even though we are seeing increased emergency room visits in Denver due to drugs, this study took place in a London borough where it saw a 40% to 100% increase in the hospitalization of men due to hard drugs after marijuana was legalized. The legalization of marijuana is seeing dramatic increases in social ills, causing many to see a connection with marijuana and other drug use.

While other studies have linked marijuana as a gateway drug, some are not convinced the studies are accurate.  But the London study not only places a higher rate of emergency room visits for harder drugs directly upon the shoulders of marijuana legalization, it shows that the impact is felt greatest among young men.  These studies are problematic to the pro-legalized marijuana crowd, but it doesn’t seem to be changing minds, as the mood in our country is moving towards acceptance of drugs.

More studies are showing marijuana has a negative impact on the brain and still the FDA believes the drug offers no real benefit to society.

Some argue that prohibiting marijuana, like the prohibition of alcohol, will not work.  This assumes, though, that the prohibition of alcohol didn’t work.  In fact, it did work.  Alcoholic consumption in America did not rise to pre-prohibition levels until almost 40 years after the repeal of prohibition.  Prohibition curbed the use of alcohol nationally, saw fewer societal problems due to alcohol, and it took two generations before alcohol rose back to previous levels.

In other words, prohibition worked.  While some dispute these statistics, they do so by comparing consumption rates in the most alcohol rich locations in America, but the vast majority of America were unable to obtain any alcohol, legal or illegal.

This brings us back to marijuana.  The use of marijuana will obviously increase many social ills in the United States.  Experts believe marijuana has no major medical benefit and are challenging other popular myths concerning this drug.

The pro-legalization crowd is in hyper-drive trying to legalize marijuana, but the long term impact of these policies will be more than society is prepared to handle.