Posted on 06/17/2019 9:30:06 AM PDT by MarvinStinson
The first two states to legalize recreational marijuana are starting to grapple with teenagers' growing use of highly potent pot, even as both boost the industry and reap huge tax windfalls from its sales.
Though the legal purchase age is 21 in Colorado and Washington, parents, educators and physicians say youths are easily getting hold of edibles infused with tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the psychoactive component that causes a high, and concentrates such as "shatter," a brittle, honey-colored substance that is heated and then inhaled through a special device.
Each poses serious risks to adolescents' physical and mental health.
"Underage kids have unbelievable access to nuclear-strength weed," said Andrew Brandt, a Boulder, Colo., software executive whose son got hooked.
Calls to poison control centers and visits to emergency rooms have risen. In the Denver area, visits to Children's Hospital Colorado facilities for treatment of cyclic vomiting, paranoia, psychosis and other acute cannabis-related symptoms jumped to 777 in 2015, from 161 in 2005.
The increase was most notable in the years following legalization of medical sales in 2009 and retail use in 2014.
"Horrible things are happening to kids," said psychiatrist Libby Stuyt, who treats teens in southwestern Colorado and has studied the health impacts of high-potency marijuana. "I see increased problems with psychosis, with addiction, with suicide, with depression and anxiety."
The limited scientific research to date shows that earlier and more frequent use of high-THC cannabis puts adolescents at greater jeopardy of substance use disorders, mental health issues and poor school performance.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
The strength of this newer stuff is scary. I smoked a fair amount when younger. I enjoyed it but eventually just kind of grew out of it. What I imbibed in compares to the modern products like lite beer to hard liquor.
The same place they get it, which is the same place they were getting it before it went legal.
All you needed to do is see all the drug addicts in Oregon to tell you this.
Colorado is going to get much, much worse before anything is done.
Teens.
Legal pot.
What could possibly go wrong?
[[They also have Ads attacking Big Tobacco about secondhand Smoke (using CGI) to give the smoke some sort of power where it can direct itself through the open windows of a Child’s room.]]
And they aren’t even required to prove scientifically that a few particles of smoke/carcinogens that might make it’s way back to an open window was the cause of a kid’s cancer some 40-50 years later-
They banned smoking in parking lots at hospitals, and I thought “How in the heck are they gonna prove that a person got cancer from a particular person’s smoke, in which a a few particles of cigarette smoke mighta floated across the parking lot and hit the person, when the person gets cancer some 50 years later?
How are they gonna directly link it to that one cigarette? or even several ciggs that people in parking lot were smoking on such and such a day 50 years ago?
Well, first, I must say that I am totally shocked! /s
“Underage kids have unbelievable access to nuclear-strength weed,” said Andrew Brandt, a Boulder, Colo., software executive whose son got hooked.
But it isn’t addictive at all, so we have been told time after time after time. We call users stoners for a reason. They develop a culture of just don’t give a damn about anything.
Have a friend who’s kid is now a paranoid schizophrenic. Kid was hooked on THC oil vaping. I have hard believing that didn’t contribute to current condition.
Like NY soon to be:
https://nypost.com/2019/06/16/ny-senate-hashing-out-pro-weed-bill-for-introduction/
Kids won’t be imprisoned for having some.
That’s worth a lot in itself.
Of course, pot never is really legalized. It just becomes MUCH more highly regulated.
Go after adult sellers of products to kids. Put them in jail and make an example.
Exactly as we do with the more dangerous drug sold legally at nearly every roadside stop in the 50 states as long as you are 21+: alcohol
Unexpected.
Agreed. It’s stupid. Second hand smoke
is harmless. Still, you don’t often see
people blow smoke into a baby’s face.
Damn, and here I was thinking it was (still) illegal for minors?! Learn something new every day /s
How long after Prohibition before the ‘novelty’ again wore off (not that I recall ‘minor’ age-limits being about that time either...)? Then extrapolate for the century+ of illegal/unconstitutional suppression...
Ah, the ‘war on (some) drugs’: Fascism of the (R)N(C) that even some on FR can get behind
Dude! I’m in Washington state today. What’s your mailing address?
“teen use triggers concerns”
Well what did you expect, you morons?
Gee, wonder why it was "limited"? What was it "limited" to find?
Tell Your Children aka Reefer Madness
The same crowd that gave us prohibition and the 1934 nfa. Yeah their answer to everything was banning by government fiat.
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