TO: Mayor and Council Members
Marlene Best, City Manager
Shawn Hagerty, City Attorney
FROM: James Jeffries, Assistant City Clerk
DATE: August 14, 2024
SUBJ: Updated Council Meeting Materials – August 14, 2024 NON-AGENDA PUBLIC COMMENT:
The attached correspondence for Non-Agenda Public Comment was received and is provided for your consideration.
From: Barbara Gordon
To: John Minto; Rob McNelis; Ronn Hall; Laura Koval; Dustin Trotter Cc: Clerk Info
Subject: Public Comment
Date: Wednesday, August 14, 2024 6:46:29 AM
Dear City Council Members,
I want to share the newly released 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health which is the leading federal estimate of trends in drug, tobacco, and alcohol use.
Data shows that over the past 20 years, the number of past-month users of marijuana increased by 198.18%, as the number of monthly users who used tobacco products decreased by 29.49%. If trends continue, there will soon be more past-month users of marijuana than tobacco
These trends demonstrate that we have entered the phase of Big Tobacco 2.0, with the legalization of marijuana and the ensuing emergence of the profit-driven marijuana industry. As the nation we have worked to overcome the harms of Big Tobacco, it has turned a blind eye to the next public health crisis: the rise of marijuana use.
A former White House drug policy advisor Dr. Kevin Sabet stated, “This latest data makes clear what we’ve said all along, the normalization and industrialization of today’s high potency THC drug products is a self-made public health crisis for this country.” As a community and especially policy makers we should be doing everything in our power to discourage marijuana and other drug use, support treatment, and counter misinformation on the harmlessness of marijuana.
Thank you,
Barbara Gordon