Pubdate: Tue, 24 Mar 2015
Source: Gazette, The (Colorado Springs, CO)
Copyright: 2015 The Gazette
Contact: http://www.gazette.com/sections/opinion/submitletter/
Website: http://www.gazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/165
Authors: Pula Davis, Wayne Laugesen, Christine Tatum
Series: Special report, 'Clearing the Haze:'

TEEN: COLORADO VOTERS WERE DUPED INTO LEGALIZING RECREATIONAL MARIJUANA

Nineteen-year-old Kaleb is 41 days and seven hours sober when he sits 
down for a long conversation about his marijuana addiction.

Two more months, his treatment providers tell him, and he'll likely 
be able to deliver his first clean drug test in many years showing no 
presence of THC, the active ingredient in cannabis that produces a 
euphoric high and can affect the mind and body for weeks after use - 
especially if you're like Kaleb, who was getting high every day along 
with about 6 percent of American high school seniors. This according 
to the federally funded Monitoring the Future, one of the United 
States' most extensive and longest-running surveys of students' drug 
use and attitudes toward substances.

By his own admission, Kaleb, who is days away from his 20th birthday, 
has spent practically all of his teen years stoned, or "blazed." He 
is still coming out of a mental and physical haze - and also coming 
to terms with the problems that stacked up for him when he checked 
out of life to pursue recreation of the chemically induced kind.

He's regaining clarity and focus - and a sense of ambition he says he 
hasn't felt in years.

It is a different kind of ambition than the one that drove him to 
manipulate everyone around him to score his next hit. With an easy 
smile - but determined brown eyes that family and friends say are 
finally clear again - Kaleb says he wants a fresh start and to be 
fully present in his life and community. He doesn't want credit for 
merely showing up - which is how he sums up his graduation from Sand 
Creek High in 2013 with a 1.8 GPA. Kaleb wants a college degree and a 
career. He wants to repair strained relationships.

And when he's healthy and confident enough, Kaleb also wants to work 
to stop the United States' burgeoning marijuana industry and to 
reverse what he calls "clueless and dangerous" cannabis laws. Kaleb's 
story suggests a state at risk of triggering a public health crisis 
that will hit youths especially hard because they are caught in a lot 
of the same social dynamics Kaleb said he found in his high school's cafeteria.

"It's [marijuana industry] all so misleading, and there's a lot of 
trickery going on because there are big money and politics in this 
and not enough people standing up to do the right thing because 
they're afraid of losing something - like money, power, privilege or 
image," Kaleb said. "I compare it to Big Tobacco and bogus 1950s ads 
pushing everyone to smoke cigarettes - you know, as an expression of 
personal freedom and with a mythical 9 out of 10 doctors saying it's 
all right. Only this time, it's not just a buzz from some nicotine 
we're talking about. Weed is a psychoactive, mind-altering substance. 
It is addictive. And I don't care what anyone says; it is being 
marketed to kids."

Advocates for drug abuse prevention say many Americans - including 
and especially those making public policy and influencing public 
opinion from massive media platforms - either have been duped by or 
are caught up in the hype generated by an industry that derives its 
chief profits from addiction.

"People are voting without the knowledge," Dr. Nora Volkow, director 
of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, told hundreds of people 
gathered in February 2014 in Washington, D.C., for an annual meeting 
of the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America. "We have to counter 
investments of individuals wanting to change the culture and (promote 
beliefs that) it (marijuana) is a safe drug."

And while no, most people who use marijuana - and alcohol for that 
matter - aren't addicts, Kaleb says, "You just have to be 
intoxicated, not an addict, to cause serious damage. And yeah, 
getting sober in Colorado is really hard because drugs and media 
telling you why they're so great are everywhere all the time now."

Indeed, while the state reports that about 485,000 Coloradans 18 and 
older are regular marijuana users (defined as using at least once a 
month), state auditors examining marijuana sold in state-licensed 
facilities found that about 106,000 Coloradans - or nearly 2 percent 
of the state's population - drove more than two-thirds of demand for 
the drug. Reports from the Colorado Department of Revenue refer to 
those people as the "heaviest users" because they consume cannabis 
daily or near daily - behavior consistent with substance addiction.

"We're mortgaging our future for the almighty dollar," said Kevin 
Sabet, a former senior White House drug policy adviser who teamed 
with former Democratic U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy and political pundit 
David Frum to start Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a national, 
nonprofit group that advocates for marijuana policy reform but does 
not support the drug's legalization. "Make no mistake," Sabet said. 
"Legalization is about cranking up the number of heavy users, 
targeting the most vulnerable - as every industry selling an 
addictive drug does - and making money. That's it. If it were about 
getting people out of prison or increasing science-based prevention, 
there are myriad ways to do those things without ushering in Big Tobacco 2.0."

In December, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health delivered 
more troubling news reinforcing the cacophony of late-night jokes 
that Colorado has a drug problem and plenty of enablers. Pick a 
substance - alcohol, abused prescription painkillers, cocaine, 
heroin, marijuana or tobacco - and the state ranks above the national average.

But it is marijuana use that Colorado works hardest on these days. 
The need to explain spiking drug-use rates while implementing 
legalization of retail marijuana sales is increasingly pressing: The 
state's 2013 past-month marijuana use rate was the nation's second 
highest, coming in at 12.7 percent of Coloradans age 12 and older. 
That is up from 10.41 percent in 2012, when voters sanctioned 
recreational marijuana use, and from 7.8 percent in 2000, when they 
sanctioned marijuana for medical use. With the January 2014 rollout 
of retail marijuana, Colorado usage rates are likely to increase.

Use of alcohol and nonmedical painkillers also increased in Colorado 
between 2012 and 2013. While marijuana legalization's impact on the 
consumption of other drugs is the subject of heated debate among 
economists and drug-policy advocates, the connection is much more 
straightforward for Kaleb.

"The weed, not alcohol or tobacco, came first, and the more I used, 
the more I drank, and the more pills I eventually popped," he said. 
"That (progression) doesn't happen to everyone who uses weed, but it 
happens to enough of us. It's a gateway."

The trends in marijuana use and addiction specifically among 
Colorado's youths are also disturbing - if for no other reason than 
the state has kept poor data and now finds itself building a baseline 
by which marijuana's impact on youth can be determined.

The 2013 Healthy Kids Colorado Survey, administered to youths 
enrolled in public schools, is the state's most robust evaluation of 
students' marijuana use and attitudes about the drug, said Alyson 
Shupe, chief of the health statistics and evaluation branch of the 
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Comparing the 
2013 state-survey data to the much smaller samples collected from 
students in previous years for a federally funded study released by 
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is difficult. "The 
actual percentages aren't affected so much as the confidence with 
which you can say you have a clear picture of what has happened and 
can detect meaningful change over that time," Shupe said. The state 
now wishes to press on with a more robust survey, but it will be 
years before researchers can determine use trends - a lag in 
information that could keep a response years behind any problems.

While Kaleb blames himself for getting high the first time, he also 
recognizes that he was a 14-year-old who believed his friend's 
parents when they said marijuana wasn't addictive and was safer to 
use than alcohol. The couple had medical marijuana cards and diverted 
their stash to their son and his friends, Kaleb said.

His experience is consistent with research conducted by Dr. Christian 
Thurstone, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of 
Colorado, and his colleagues: 74 percent of Denver teens in substance 
treatment and 18 percent of Denver teens not in substance treatment 
reported getting the drug from people with a state-issued license. 
(Thurstone is the husband of reporter Christine Tatum, who worked on 
this project for The Gazette.)

When he turned 18, Kaleb wasted no time getting a "red card" - and 
dealing the drug. He found plenty of customers at schools. Of the 2.4 
million Americans who try cannabis for the first time each year, 
about 57 percent are younger than 18, according to the NSDUH. Peak 
use among Americans is at age 20 - followed by ages 19 and 18. One of 
every six adolescents who try marijuana becomes addicted to the drug 
- - a rate medical experts say was determined decades ago when 
marijuana was far less potent than it is today.

To land the state's permission to use weed, Kaleb said he headed to a 
Colorado Springs business that sold medical marijuana evaluations for 
$65. He fabricated a story about hurting his knee while playing 
football at school - a sport he'd never played at school. The doctor 
Kaleb briefly met diagnosed him with tendinitis and recommended what 
essentially became an unlimited supply of marijuana, hash oil and 
THC-infused foods and drinks.

By then, Kaleb knew where to find coupons and special offers of pot 
freebies and paraphernalia in the free glossy magazines that were 
always stacked in local convenience stores.

Though the state permits medical marijuana users to designate only 
one "caregiver," or supplier of the drug, Kaleb said he maintained 
"memberships" at 12-15 dispensaries at a time.

Fueled by constant buy-2-grams-get-1-free specials, Kaleb quickly 
amassed a cannabis stash. Each day he dealt to other kids, he said, 
he typically cleared $1,083 in profit - much of which fed his own 
drug habit, which had advanced from smoking marijuana to consuming 
hash oil. The oil, which can be vaporized or infused into foods and 
drinks, typically starts at 85 percent THC. That's about 40 times the 
potency of the weed of Woodstock, which was around 2 percent THC. 
Even 1 ounce of the oil can impair hundreds of people. Kaleb said he 
consumed hash oil five to eight times a day just to feel normal.

"It's the crack of marijuana," he said.

Use of hash oil is a relatively new and increasingly popular trend 
that can cause severe reactions, such as panic and psychosis, 
Thurstone said. Kaleb said he saw those reactions in friends.

Kaleb's newfound drive to take a stand against cannabis in all its 
forms is fueled in part by anger he says he's determined to channel 
to spare other people - especially youths - the problems he 
experienced. His use of hash oil really did him in, he said - but not 
so much that he didn't notice the adults in his life who essentially 
shrugged their shoulders about his marijuana use.

There were the traffic stops, when waves of pungent pot smoke 
billowed from his car and into the faces of police officers who said 
nothing when Kaleb produced his red card. There were the teachers who 
winked and joked about how he'd obviously "had a really nice lunch" 
when he returned to their classrooms so stoned he'd just put his head 
on his desk. There were the parents of friends who liked toking with 
high schoolers.

And then there were Kaleb's parents, who, after years of pleading and 
efforts to find him treatment, finally asked him to leave their home 
a couple of months before his high school graduation. Chief among 
their fears was that he would be a harmful influence on his younger brother.

"That was the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life, but I 
know it's what had to be done to save his life and to protect the 
rest of our family," said Lisa Taylor, Kaleb's mother. "What really 
gets me about this entire issue is that our country is rushing to 
legalize a drug under the guise of helping the very sick and the 
dying and the ruse that everyone agrees kids have no business using 
marijuana. But the truth is that we're just clearing the way for more 
kids to become addicts."

About a year after being forced to strike out on his own, Kaleb 
decided to fight for his sobriety.

"I was losing my family and losing my motivation," he said. "I was 
seeing people a lot older than me using weed and working in the same 
low-level jobs as me and being perfectly content. I just saw where my 
future was heading, and it scared me. I texted my mom for help."

[sidebar]

Day 3: YOUTHFUL ADDICTION

Protecting our children was a priority as the public headed to the 
polls to vote on Amendment 64. The most recent research on adolescent 
brain development and related addiction studies indicates this is 
more important than ever thought before. Adolescent exposure to 
marijuana is most troubling because young users are more vulnerable 
to addiction throughout their lives. Post-legalization trends in 
Colorado raise concerns because regulation has fallen short of the 
promises made by the state. The increasing rate of pot use also is a 
concern of employers.

About the series

The reporting team: editorial board members Pula Davis and Wayne 
Laugesen and local reporter Christine Tatum.

After the first year of recreational pot sales, The Gazette takes a 
comprehensive look at the unintended consequences of legalizing sales 
and use of recreational marijuana.

Day 1: Colorado has a fragile scheme for regulating legal marijuana 
and implementing a state drug prevention strategy.

Day 2: One of the suppositions about legalizing pot was that 
underground sales would be curtailed, but officials say there is 
evidence of a thriving black market.

Day 3: One teen's struggle to overcome his marijuana addiction shows 
how devastating the effects of the drug can be for younger, more 
vulnerable users.

Day 4: Amid the hoopla about recreational marijuana sales, the 
medical marijuana industry is flourishing and has its own set of 
complicated concerns.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom