Former Undercover Narcotics Officer Shares Grim Realities
Lt. Ed Moses, MSHP (Ret.) and Subject Matter Expert Dr. John Coleman, DEA (Ret.)
For the past few years, I have spent so much time traveling across South Dakota sharing fact based data and real-life experiences, that your state has become my second home. I have met thousands of you while discussing how recreational marijuana has devastated communities where it has been legalized. The grim reality of lives lost, families tragically destroyed, and communities left socially and economically weaker fuels my commitment to helping South Dakotans continue to say NO to IM 29 and NOT in Our State.
As an undercover narcotics officer with the Missouri State Patrol in the 1970s, I witnessed young people using marijuana containing 1-to-3 percent THC, one of the chemicals that causes impairment. In the ‘80s I learned from colleagues at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) research facility in Oxford, Mississippi, that street marijuana’s THC had increased to more than 10%.
Since then, the marijuana trade has been taken over by commercial enterprises dominated by the powerful tobacco and alcohol industries aided by their political allies. Using laboratory-based technology to isolate and concentrate THC and other cannabinoid molecules, they have commercialized THC in food, beverages, candy, and even highly concentrated “vaping” cartridges that provide THC in purified form. Sale of “vape cartridges” that are “in the scope of 70 to 98% THC.”
Cannabinoid receptors are in regions of the brain associated with emotional health, formation of memories and learning skills. Scientists question the long and short-term health effects of flooding these brain receptors. Contrary to what is advertised in the popular media, scores of reputable medical experts around the world caution that these effects could be catastrophic over the long-term, producing harmful physical and psychological effects that are unpredictable, irreversible, and detrimental to human reproductive systems.
For instance, the Illinois “2023 Annual Cannabis Report” show a correlation between marijuana legalization in Illinois and a spike in fatal car crashes, pediatric poisonings, and use of marijuana by pregnant women.
• Fatal Car Crashes: In 2020, there were more significant increases in positive cannabis drug tests among drivers involved in fatal traffic accidents in Illinois when compared to other nearby states and the United States1.
• Pediatric Poisonings: Between 2021 and 2022, there was a notable rise in the incidents of 12 to 17 years old contacting the Illinois Poison Control Center due to cannabis ingestion1. Edible cannabis products were responsible for the majority (54.3%) of reported cases of cannabis poisonings in the 12 to 17-year-old age group, whereas older age groups had a more even distribution between dried cannabis plant-based products and edibles1.
• Marijuana Use Among Pregnant Women: From 2017–2018 to 2019–2020, there was a 6.3% rise in the occurrence of past-month cannabis use among expectant mothers in Illinois1. Such statistics are alarming considering recent studies have shown that exposure to maternal prenatal cannabis was linked to a higher likelihood of preterm birth.
Legalizing recreational marijuana in South Dakota will be a nightmare for mental health (especially developing adolescents) and public safety (crashes, suicides, crime, crimes of violence). Law enforcement organizations oppose this, while the $6,000,000 funded pro marijuana claims it will help police. Who are you going to believe?
As a retired law enforcement officer and as an “adopted son of South Dakota” I urge you to vote NO on IM-29.