ENDORSEMENT: Vote against 300, ‘yes’ on 2D

The most important measures on the Colorado Springs ballot will determine the future of our city. Should Colorado Springs A. continue its trajectory as Colorado’s best city for families, businesses, athletes, higher education and military operations; or B. transition to a second-rate Denver with commercial pot stores lining our streets.

Those who choose “A” must vote “against” Ballot Question 300 and “yes” on Ballot Question 2D.

Question 300 asks voters to authorize nearly 100 medicinal marijuana stores to sell the drug for recreation, which comes with mass marketing and commercial pressure to use.

Question 2D would put an end to the constant threat posed by efforts to legalize recreational sales. It would do so by amending the city charter — think constitution — to forbid retail recreational marijuana sales.

“Colorado Springs is nationally known for being a family and business-friendly city,” said Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade, endorsing 2D.

In a conversation with a Gazette editorial board member Monday, Mobolade said he “absolutely” opposes Question 300 with the same passion he supports 2D. He encourages voters to show up in droves to defeat 300 and pass 2D.

Mobolade rightly believes recreational pot sales would damage the city’s brand. That would make us less desirable to business leaders looking to relocate, families planning to visit or relocate and the military.

“We were named the most desirable city in the country and recently named the most neighborly city in the U.S.” Mobolade wrote.

“We have worked hard to cultivate a reputation as a safe, desirable place to live, work and visit. Voting yes on 2D will ensure recreational marijuana can’t be sold in our city limits, which ultimately protects our city’s youth, relationship with the military, economic vitality and quality of life.”

Those unfazed by such concerns should turn to The New York Times. The reliably progressive publication — some call it the media’s flagship— on Saturday published a scathing 5,000-word investigative report on the harms associated with growing marijuana use as states legalize recreational sales.

The Times disclosed that the report comes after reporters “examined medical records and public health and insurance data; reviewed scientific research; and interviewed more than 200 health officials, doctors, regulators and consumers. Reporters also surveyed more than 200 physicians in about a half-dozen specialties and almost 600 people who suffer from cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome.

“The data and interviews reveal not only new, detailed evidence of the health risks but also growing alarm among doctors and researchers,” the Times reported.

The research found a widespread public health nightmare involving marijuana-caused temporary psychosis (lasting months or years), chronic psychotic disorders, schizophrenia, cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, addiction and more.

Despite conventional wisdom that marijuana never kills, The Times found that cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome (CHS) has killed.

“Among the fatalities identified by The Times was Kevin Doohan, a 37-year-old electrician in California with a fiancee and a young daughter. He died in 2020 after living with CHS for a decade,” The Times reported.

And this: “Marijuana use can affect brain development, particularly during the critical period of adolescence through age 25. This is also the period when psychotic disorders typically emerge.”

Dr. Deepak Cyril D’Souza, a professor at Yale School of Medicine and a staff psychiatrist at VA Connecticut Healthcare Systems, compared the link between marijuana and psychotic disorders to the link between cigarettes and lung cancer.

The article’s unsurpassed research busts mythologies that say marijuana is harmless and potentially healthy. Instead, it’s the cause of an insidious health and mental health crisis.

Keep Colorado Springs healthy, smart and exceptional. Do so by voting “against” 300 and “yes” on 2D.