Many different opinions throughout the 70’, 80’s and 90’s grow to cultivate the steady stream of legalization laws passed in Colorado. In the beginning of the legalization movement states such as Oregon and Alaska pressed towards legalization of marijuana by passing decriminalization laws that put limits on possession by the amount of weight possessed (usually in grams). By 1978, eleven states had passed such laws, however nationwide decriminalization of the drugs continues to be debated in the federal government today. With such controversial debates having generated much interest in the drug and its effects on social, psychological and economical many clinicians have focused their studies towards understanding the consequences of allowing the drug to remain decriminalized or perhaps what would happen if it was ever legalized. Here in California medical Marijuana was legalized in 1996, becoming the first state to do so with the passage of proposition 215. In 1998 Oregon followed with the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act and Maine in 1999 with a 61% approval. These laws would allow medical patients to use, cultivate and possess marijuana as long as they have a prescription from a doctor who thought that it would benefit them. 13 years later Washington and Colorado become the first states to legalize recreational marijuana use for adults 21 years of age and older. It is important to note how opinions are formulated among individuals who are representatives in these debates. Looking first at a study done at Carleton University in Ontario, Canada wanted to take a closer look at the effects of heavy marijuana use among individuals by categorizing users as either former (longer than 3 months previous) or current (within past 3 months) heavy users (5+ joints per week) and light users (5- joints per week). Along with self-reports of use, the researchers used urinalysis to study the use of a total of 113 adults. To gather the information that they were looking for to decipher the effects of the drug, the researchers looked at how the individuals overall IQ,