In April, Sen. Chuck Grassley convened a hearing to explore whether the Justice Department is effectively gathering data to evaluate how state recreational marijuana legalization is impacting its federal enforcement priorities. These priorities include protecting minors from harm and preventing other adverse public health consequences. The non-partisan Government Accountability Office found that officials at the Department “have not documented their monitoring process or provided specificity about key aspects of it, including potential limitations of the data they report using” and “did not identify how they would use the data from these various reports and studies to monitor the effects of marijuana legalization.” Now, a new study in JAMA Pediatrics says marijuana exposure in young children in Colorado has increased 150 percent since 2014, when recreational marijuana products like cookies and candy were legalized there. Grassley made the following comment.
“The Justice Department said that protecting children from marijuana was one of its federal enforcement priorities, but this new data shows just how badly it’s failed to do so, especially with edible products sold in shapes and packaging that appeal to children. The Obama administration should stop burying its head in the sand about what’s happening to its enforcement priorities on recreational marijuana. This is an abdication of its responsibility to protect the public.”
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