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Talking to your teens about alcohol, tobacco and other drugs can be difficult. But did you know that kids whose parents talk to them about drugs and alcohol use are 50% less likely to use substances? The Time to Talk Parent Blog provides facts, resources and other tools that can help you start the conversation and keep it going.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Focus on: Marijuana

Marijuana can pose a particular threat to the health and well-being of children and adolescents at a critical point in their lives—when they are growing, learning, maturing, and laying the foundation for their adult years. Greater acceptance of marijuana use, compared with use of other illicit drugs, continues to underlie divergent opinions about its dangers, illegality, and potential value. As a parent, your children look to you as a role model and for help and guidance in working out problems and in making decisions, including the decision not to use drugs. Even if you have used drugs in the past, you can have an open conversation about the dangers. Having used drugs should not prevent you from talking to your child about the dangers of drug use. In fact, experience can better equip us to teach others, including drawing on the value of possible mistakes.

Know the Law: Amendment 20 in the Colorado Constitution states that marijuana can be used for medicinal purposes and that medical marijuana card-holders can possess up to two ounces of marijuana and cultivate six plants. Persons under the age of 18 years old can obtain a medical marijuana card, but only after strict approval regulations. However, marijuana is a federally illegal substance and has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat any diseases.

MARIJUANA FACTS
  • Marijuana is a green, brown, or gray mixture of dried, shredded leaves, stems, seeds, and flowers of the hemp plant.
  • All forms of marijuana are mind-altering (psychoactive). In other words, they change how the brain works.
  • Marijuana contains THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol), the main active chemical in marijuana. Levels of THC are higher in today’s world. For example, one “joint” today is equivalent to smoking 3-5 “joints” in the 1960s.1
  • Marijuana can contain more than 400 other chemicals, some of which are carcinogenic. In fact, marijuana smoke contains 50–70 percent more carcinogenic hydrocarbons than tobacco smoke.2,3
  • Marijuana is a federally illegal substance and has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat any diseases. However, in the state of Colorado, it is acceptable for medical marijuana cardholders to possess up to two ounces of marijuana as well as six plants.4
  • Persons under the age of 18 years old can obtain a medical marijuana card only after strict approval regulations.4
  • Marijuana is UNSAFE if you are behind the wheel. Marijuana compromises judgment and affects many other skills required for safe driving: alertness, concentration, coordination, and reaction time.5

OTHER FACTS
  • The human brain isn’t fully mature until roughly the age of 25. That means children and adolescents are in stages of brain growth and development that leave them especially vulnerable to problems caused by drug use, abuse and addiction.6
  • In Routt County, 17% of 11th grade male students report using marijuana over 40 times in the past 30 days.7
  • Students in Routt County report trying marijuana for the first time as early as 12 years old or younger.7




    1. 2006 NIDA Report, NIDA, InfoFacts, www.drugabuse.gov, 2006.
    2. Above the Influence, www.abovetheinfluence.com
    3. NIDA Fact Sheet, "Effects on Lungs", 2010, http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/infofacts/marijuana
    4. The Colorado Medical Marijuana Registry, Colorado Constitution, http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/hs/medicalmarijuana/amendment.html
    5. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, NIH Publication No. 10-4036, Printed 1995, Revised November 1998, Reprinted April 2001, February 2007 Revised November 2002, September 2004, August 2007, March 2011
    6. Colorado Department of Education, "Understand the Big Deal, How Marijuana Harms Youth", http://www.cde.state.co.us/DropoutPrevention/Resources.htm 
    7. Healthy Kids Colorado Survey, Routt County, 2009-2010

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