(from wikipedia.org)

After alcohol, marijuana is the most widely used illegal drug in the United States (I mean seriously, who hasn’t smoked up at least once? According to Pew Research Center, half of the country) But pot laws are rapidly changing in many parts of the country and soon it may be as ubiquitous as alcohol. Four states in the US have legalized marijuana for recreational use and 23 total states have some form of legal marijuana use (including D.C.). While the health effects of alcohol have been well studied and are significant (some 88,000 deaths/year, the third highest cause of preventable death in the US, according to the CDC and NIAAA), little is known how this shifting trend in marijuana use will affect the country. Another important trend is the amount of THC (Δ-9-tetrohydrocannabinol, the chemical that is primarily responsible for the psychoactive effects of marijuana) in…