As a Republican state senator representing Lyme and Old Lyme, Art Linares voted against cannabis legalization and vocalized his opposition on the Senate floor.
Now he's helping to grow it.
Linares is on record calling cannabis a "gateway drug" and said it contributed to the ongoing opioid crisis. He said young people were becoming "addicted to relieving pain with this substance."
During a senate session in 2016, Linares said the state's decision to legalize cannabis for medical purposes "has really desensitized our youth."
"When they think about cannabis, they don't think about it as something that can be harmful to their brain development, threatening to their future, and that's a problem," Linares said in 2016. "Because science will tell us that it can harm their ability to do well in school, perform in athletics, be a good friend, be a good son, daughter to their family."
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