A Colorado Springs Gazette opinion piece, written up in the Oklahoman, reports on the toll that pot legalization has taken on the Centennial State.

Five years later, we remain an embarrassing cautionary tale.

Visitors to Colorado remark about a new agricultural smell, the wafting odor of pot as they drive near warehouse grow operations along Denver freeways. Residential neighborhoods throughout Colorado Springs reek of marijuana, as producers fill rental homes with plants.

Five years of retail pot coincide with five years of a homelessness growth rate that ranks among the highest rates in the country. Directors of homeless shelters, and people who live on the streets, tell us homeless substance abusers migrate here for easy access to pot.

Five years of Big Marijuana ushered in a doubling in the number of drivers involved in fatal crashes who tested positive for marijuana, based on research by the pro-legalization Denver Post.

Five years of commercial pot have been five years of more marijuana in schools than teachers and administrators ever feared.

This is a cautionary tale for the rest of America, where support for this poisonous plant's legalization has risen to 60%, according to a recent poll.  If states go down the path toward legalization, they can expect similar outcomes to the one in Colorado.

The fact is, ingesting a chemically laced plant complete with carcinogens and brain cell-destroyers is bad for the body.  For one example among many, the NATAP recently published an Australian study, "Cannabis Use and Early Onset of Psychosis":

We found that the use of cannabis and other illicit substances was associated with an earlier age at onset of psychotic disorders. In contrast, alcohol use alone did not appear to be significantly associated with a younger age at onset of psychosis. With regard to our a priori hypothesis, we found that a higher proportion of cannabis users in the substance-using groups significantly contributed to the heterogeneity in the effect size, indicating an earlier mean age at onset of psychosis in samples with more cannabis users.

Why add one more social ill to the list of others?

James Arlandson's website is Live as Free People, where he has posted Twelve health risks from smoking pot, Five myths about marijuana and you, and Five myths about marijuana and society.