HALEY MARTIENAU, Burbank

With Washington state passing Initiative 502, marijuana will be legal to possess in small amounts as of Dec. 6.

It is expected that this will eventually boost our economy with how much tax is being placed on marijuana sales. However, I believe this will cause more harm than good.

Without marijuana being legal, a huge percentage of my classmates show up to classes high. We have had many drug busts within the school or around it.

When marijuana is legal for adults, won't that just create easier access to students, making it even easier for them to "light up" during lunch or before school?

Parents want their students to have a safe and comfortable learning environment. Legalizing marijuana is just going to make that harder to achieve. How safe would you feel being in a classroom with a group of stoned students or with police dogs doing random locker searches? Personally, I find it extremely distracting.

As for improving the economy, how many nonproductive citizens will now move from Idaho or Oregon to Washington just to be able to purchase weed? With this, there will be more public assistance needed to help these citizens, and unemployment rates will increase. I-502 will do no good.