The Dec. 27 editorial "Marijuana and minors" calls attention to the importance of educating our young people about the dangers of marijuana use, now that we will soon find pot for sale to adults in convenient locations throughout our region. If Colorado, just slightly ahead of us in developing the pot sale rules, is a bellwether, we must prepare for a tough fight to keep pot out of the hands of many more kids than ever before. At DenverPost.com on Dec. 9, we learned that "pocket hookahs proliferate with young marijuana users." Bob Doyle, executive director of Colorado Tobacco Education and Prevention Alliance, states "the marijuana industry is as advanced or more advanced than the e-cigarette industry. The products (e.g. pocket vaporizers or vapes) are appealing to kids and they promote the ability to hide marijuana use." The owner of a head shop in Englewood, Colo., stressed that he does not sell to minors "but he acknowledged that vapes are getting into the hands of youths and are easily available online." Latest figures from the Colorado Division of Behavioral Health show that in the previous 30 days, 23 to 32 percent of high school aged students said they had smoked marijuana. The percentage rose with each higher grade level. Ann T. Donnelly Vancouver [end]
Pot legalization is very bad for school kids. That's the message of a Nov. 12 Denver Post story "Pot problems in Colorado schools increase with legalization," reporting on the clear impacts of Colorado's pot legalization. There is a sharp rise in disciplinary actions reported by authorities such as Janelle Krueger of the Expelled and At-Risk Student Services for the Colorado Department of Education. Krueger is quoted that "school officials believe the jump is linked to the message that legalization (even though it is still prohibited for anyone under 21) is sending to kids: that marijuana is a medicine and a safe and accepted recreational activity." Grand Junction school official Jeff Grady is quoted in the story stating: "Kids are smoking before school and during lunch breaks. They come to school reeking of pot. They are being much more brazen." Ann T. Donnelly Vancouver [end]
A resident physician in the Department of Psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine has now weighed in to highlight the growing evidence linking marijuana use and schizophrenia. In the July 1 Wall Street Journal story "Pot Smoking and the Schizophrenia Connection," Dr. Samuel T. Wilkinson states, "As the medical and scientific literature continues to accumulate ... it becomes clearer that the claim that marijuana is medically harmless is false. There is a significant and consistent relationship between marijuana use and the development of schizophrenia and related disorders. Schizophrenia is considered by psychiatrists to be the most devastating of mental illnesses." [continues 82 words]
The Colorado Springs news outlet CBS4 reported on March 6 that a prominent local drug testing company, Conspire, has documented a spike in children using pot following the passage of Colorado's Amendment 64. Conspire is now receiving requests for drug testing from school districts on a weekly basis, not monthly as before. One high school student states, "I've seen a lot more people just walking down the street smoking joints." Conspire staff are finding unprecedented levels of THC in kids: "a typical kid is between 50 and 100 nanograms. Now we're seeing these up in the over 500, 700, 800." Jo McGuire of Conspire describes the danger to the human brain: "In the past we've used the term stoner or fried ... because you literally take your brain and you rob it of the ability to fire the way it's supposed to." McGuire expresses alarm that these stoned high school kids are driving after school. [continues 54 words]
Reading the Sept. 30 editorial, "Legalize & Tax: Marijuana Initiative 502 offers the chance to abandon prohibition as a lost cause," I am very disappointed that in endorsing Initiative 502 (which will legalize and tax marijuana), The Columbian made no mention of the increasing evidence that marijuana is a high-risk drug with high health and cost impacts for society. I have written previously about the studies linking marijuana use to schizophrenia. Recent studies now link the drug to testicular cancer and permanent lowering of IQ. The reason the war on marijuana in our society has failed is that the public and especially school kids continue to misperceive the drug as a harmless recreational drug. It isn't. Voters should know the risks to our future generations. - -Ann T. Donnelly, Vancouver [end]
