Look behind facade of legal marijuana

The legal consumption of recreational marijuana has arrived in Illinois to the chagrin of a majority of people I encounter daily. On the flip side of the issue, many individuals and the businesses that profit from their unlimited legal consumption will benefit as stores open throughout the state and infiltrate our communities. How we are preparing for coming generations through the example we are setting?

The detrimental health effects of consumption whether by smoking, use of bongs, vaping devices, concentrated THC crystals, hookah, topical solutions, desk vaporizers, or using it as an ingredient in food items - some prepared and consumed by adults in our homes - or minor children by accident, or by our dogs and cats that depend on us to protect their well-being - are at stake. Are we really up to the task?

The costs of this experiment will remain invisible until our hospitals, emergency responders, police and insurance carriers are overcome by a wave of emergencies that until now were not on anyone's radar. There will be unintended suffering brought about if we value our personal "pleasure" over the well-being of those who love and depend on us to be the proverbial 'adult' in the room.

I doubt anyone reading this tome is going to have an aha moment and denounce the use of this drug, just the same, maybe they'll be more conscious of their behavior and how it can alter their own life if they destroy the lives of their human and animal families.

The glamour of consuming and the allure of tax revenue associated with the wholesale introduction of marijuana to our communities is a facade. Look behind the curtain. In Naperville, we should opt out.

Michael Gresh

Naperville