Lessons learned about legalized marijuana from Colorado's chief medical officer

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As a pediatrician, Dr. Larry Wolk was trained to treat marijuana as "bad" and "illegal" — and to counsel patients against using it. 

And that his history shaped the way he approached the introduction of legal marijuana as Colorado's chief medical officer, he said.

"I think I came into this with some biases as a result of our culture, prior to legalization," he told CBC News.

But nearly three years after legalization in Colorado, he said his thinking changed at each turn.

On almost every measure, whether it was rates of hospitalizations, consumption among teens and adults, or collisions related to marijuana, the pattern was the same: an initial increase, and then long term stabilization with no increase from the rates prior to legalization in January 2014.

purchase at dank dispensary

A customer pays cash for marijuana at the Dank dispensary in Denver, Colorado. (Solomon Israel/CBC)

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