Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Research Paper

Words: 1390
Pages: 6

Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Mean Bad News for Communities Safe communities may be up in smoke if medical marijuana dispensaries continue to open up. Over the past twenty years, controversy has swelled over whether or not medical marijuana dispensaries affect the surrounding community positively or negatively. Almost everyone wants to know if dispensaries create a safe place to live and raise a family. Even though medical marijuana dispensaries increase revenues without increasing taxes, they are indeed damaging to the surrounding community as they negatively affect other businesses, the environment, and the economy, and cause problems for the dispensary owners. Despite views that medical marijuana dispensaries decrease crime, they actually …show more content…
Even though there are now laws protecting users of medical marijuana, courts are allowed to take medical marijuana use into consideration when it comes to child custody cases (Malleis 378). Many lawyers involved in child custody cases use a parent’s use of medical marijuana to their advantage (Malleis 377). An example of courts taking medical marijuana use into consideration is found in In re Alexis E., “when the California Court of Appeals rejected a father’s claim that court ordered drug counseling forced him to choose between his legal right to use marijuana and his children” (Malleis 378). These points prove that dispensaries in an area are bad for parents involved in child custody cases. Dispensaries also affect a community’s environment because a parent’s use of medical marijuana has multiple negative effects on a child’s safety (Malleis 382-383). After using medical marijuana there is a greater chance of crashing, causing child endangerment if a child is onboard (Malleis 382-383). Another example of medical marijuana use causing child endangerment is the side effects of marijuana use. Marijuana use can cause hallucinations; drowsiness; sleep; and psychosis, all of which make it hard to properly watch a child (Malleis 383). In In re Alexis E., the mother of the children stated that the father is less patient and snaps at the children when he smokes marijuana (Malleis 384). Medical marijuana causes people to act out and endanger the safety of others. There are no laws against smoking legally prescribed marijuana around children (Malleis 385), which harms a child’s