With just one week before Missourians will go to the polls to weigh in on cannabis legalization, debates around its benefits and potential policy change are heating up.

Cannabis legalization activists have been tireless in their push for the cause for months while those opposing policy changes are using every opportunity to speak up in opposition.

Dr. Daniel Mamah, a Washington University psychiatrist and director of the Washington Early Recognition Center, recently came out in favor of prohibition, claiming that he has seen firsthand various psychiatric disorders related to early and regular cannabis use.

"Very, very often, we have people that come in, and we ask them, 'When did your symptoms start?' And they would link it to 'When I started using weed' or 'When I started to increase my doses,'" Mamah said, per the St. Louis Dispatch.

He also urged voters to consider the health impacts of cannabis on Nov.8, adding that debates around Amendment 3 - the ballot measure seeking to legalize cultivation, processing and sales of marijuana to adults - are focused mainly on clearing criminal records and the economic side.

"With marijuana, there is still a lot to be studied," Mamah continued. "People think it is just this wonder drug that cures all or it's purely natural...but the reality is it has risks, different kinds of risks."

Cannabis Activists Still Going Strong

On the other end of the spectrum, the Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP) has praised the long-awaited policy change.

As a non-profit group of criminal justice professionals, including police, prosecutors and judges, LEAP aims to find alternatives to arrest and incarceration by "addressing the root causes of crime and healing police-community relationships."

He added that recreational cannabis policy reform would "return critical resources to local police, but it will also bring new revenue streams to Missouri's veterans."