Soon voters in 14 states, including Arizona, California, Maine, and Nevada, will decide whether to follow Colorado and legalize marijuana. When Colorado faced the same vote, the most common argument from the pro-legalization side was that it would bring more tax revenue for education. As an educator, I was opposed to funding capital improvement for education projects with drug money, but was willing to listen to the debate for decriminalization of pot. As I predicted, there has been more negative effects in the classroom than money in the classroom.

Marijuana marketing is everywhere. Kids see advertisements with everything from candy bars to lollipops to soda to brownies that are infused with THC, the psychoactive chemical found in marijuana. These advertisements often attempt to be humorous by spoofing products that are already familiar to children, such as “Pot” Tarts. According to BusinessWeek, “Edibles and other infused products—defined as anything other than the bud itself—make up at least half of the total, dispensary owners say.”

Colorado is now number one in marijuana use by 12- to 17-year-olds. The marijuana industry in Colorado is so normalized that kids don’t even understand the dangers. Parents also don’t understand how easy it is for these products to get into schools. A recent study by the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (RMHIDTA) found that of students who obtained marijuana, 45 percent of them obtained it legally from friends, 24 percent got it from the black market, 22 percent from their parents, six percent from medical marijuana dispensaries, two percent from retail marijuana stores and one percent from medical marijuana card holders.