Raymond Grey Bear

Bismarck

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Middle school children are seriously at risk for wide-spread abuse. Who is advocating for them? Statistics show that if a student succeeded in middle school, they are likely to be a high school graduate and continue to secondary schools.

“ND Measure 2” seeks to legalize recreational marijuana. Have we not learned how young people have acquired vaping and vaping marijuana incidents? Can you imagine what teachers will have to do in order to try to instruct young people who are high on THC in their classrooms?

We should be learning from the example of Denver, Colorado. What of the rise in mental health issues, violence and abuse incidents? World Health Organization (WHO) has extensive research on the short- and long-term effects of THC and it doesn’t demonstrate healthy outcomes.

Where are the organizations who should be fighting this issue like “Brighter Future Alliance” is proactively on radio advertisements. Where are the Drug and Alcohol treatment programs like West Central Human Services, who receive large donations. Are they waiting for this “Measure 2” to pass so they can get paid to conduct prevention initiatives? Why haven’t the public and private schools come out against Measure 2?

Lastly, I wish to address uninformed people who try to claim and justify that Dakota Nations use of THC as some kind of intellectual life style practice. In fact originally, Dakotans never used hallucinogenic at all. Currently, the Native American Church cautions against recreational use of THC.

Please North Dakotans don’t allow “Measure 2” to pass and harm our youth.