Lyon County officials hosted an informational luncheon on Tuesday afternoon to share concerns about legal recreational marijuana.
The Lyon County Sheriff's Office, Chamber of Commerce and the Healthy Communities Coalition of Lyon and Storey Counties invited a national group, SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana) to share information and statistics from state that have legalized recreational marijuana like Washington and Colorado.
SAM wants to avoid marijuana becoming big business like tobacco and alcohol. Lyon County Sheriff Al McNeil agrees and says the additional money for schools is not enough to outweigh the risks, "This is about big money, this is not about the legalization so everybody can just smoke, this is targeting a vulnerable segment of our society to exploit them for monetary gain."
Sheriff McNeil is worried that emergency room visits and DUI will rise, like they have seen in states with recreational marijuana. He says people are also more likely to go to the black market to buy marijuana in order to avoid paying the tax.
"So it's a challenge on public safety, especially the law enforcement aspect of it," says Sheriff McNeil, "I don't know, from our standpoint, how we're going to be able to manage that."
Health officials add that legal recreational marijuana will expose young people to the drug. Statistics show the number of teens who admit to using marijuana in the last 30 days steadily increased in areas with recreational marijuana.Â
"With more access to marijuana, kids are going to be probably more apt to try it," says Christy McGill, the director of Healthy Communities Coalition, "and we can actually see that in the youth risk behavior survey as it slowly ticks up."Â
If the ballot measure is approved local governments will control where the businesses operate, however they are not allowed near schools, child-care centers, some community buildings, and houses of worship.
For more SAM click here and for more on the coalition supporting the measure click here.
