Colorado law enforcement officials warn dangers of legalizing marijuana

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BENTON, Ark. (KATV) - Medical marijuana is now legal in 25 states and Arkansas could potentially be added to the list.
Two major law enforcement officials from Colorado are urging from their experience that voters say no to legalization in Arkansas.
Former president and current vice president of the Colorado Drug Investigators Association spoke exclusively to Channel 7 on Friday about how marijuana has changed their state and how it could affect ours.
"It's not a good thing for a community to do something like this," Jerry Peters, former president of the the Colorado Drug Investigators Association, said.
Peters said legalizing medical marijuana will only lead to legalization for recreational use like it did in Colorado and other states.
"This has brought an impact to the state of Colorado that's going to be hard to reverse," Peters said.
"I don't see anything that's been positive about legalizing marijuana, whether it's for recreational or for medicinal purposes," Jim Gerhardt, vice president of the Colorado Drug Investigators Association, said.
Gerhardt said it has become an unpredictable industry that has led to major problems in public safety and public health.
He also said they've seen an increase in homelessness, underage use, crime and death. There's also been a 62 percent increase in car fatalities involving marijuana.
"It has not been properly studied by the FDA to be able to say it's safe and effective," Gerhardt said.
Gerhardt said they've also seen more home invasions because of home growing, which is something that one initiative, ballot issue 7, in Arkansas would allow.
"A week ago we had a 14-year-old shot and killed when he jumped into the backyard of a man's house trying to take marijuana out of the backyard," Gerhardt said.
Both Gerhardt and Peters blame the potency of marijuana today. They said in the sixties and seventies marijuana had 3-5 percent THC and now it has 15-30 percent THC.
Plus, marijuana edibles and concentrates can have up to 95 percent THC.