I live in an area with similar laws to CO. An elementary student in a wealthy public school in our area brought valentine’s candy to school to share and poisoned her classmates to such a degree that several of them had to be rushed to the hospital for treatment.
We also had a four year old in our area get ahold of the gummies, eat the whole jar, and she died. Her mother is being charged with child neglect. All of this is preventable and predictable.
I agree that legalized edibles is a new and scary issue. Now there were definitely drug problems in schools her before marijuana was legalized… have not heard much evidence of it being worse, but that may be because I am retired now and no longer have friends with high school kids.
My cousin still volunteers at her kids old high school so hears and sees the problems.
Weed has always been around but the marijuana today is much much more potent than in years past.
Ah, yes that makes sense. Also potency (and especially inconsistency) is a problem these days in CO for fentanyl… though I think that’s also a nationwide crisis.
A couple of things to consider:
It’s also sold as fill-in-the-blank drug-that’s-been-legalized, but as long as the store has a public facing facade that sells the drugs that will pass legal inspection, they can sell whatever they want out back.
They also use kids under 18 to sell the more potent stuff, which is usually a well-known active combined with fentanyl or xylazine. The kids can’t be prosecuted even if they are caught (those laws change in tandem). Usually, if they keep it to evenings and weekends, the school doesn’t even know.
These are the things I learned living and working in two different cities with decades-old, established drug economies.
I don’t miss it. Where I am now, you have to go looking for it to know where it is.
“Correlation does not always equal causation.” I think experienced researchers realize that?
Here’s a quote from the article: “Researchers found strong evidence of an association between cannabis use disorder and schizophrenia among men and women, though the association was much stronger among young men. Using statistical models, the study authors estimated that as many as 30% of cases of schizophrenia among men aged 21-30 might have been prevented by averting cannabis use disorder.” I think that’s pretty clear.
My comment was directed at people reading this thread and at the media in general. Not at the researchers.
It just reads that you doubt the study’s accuracy and I don’t want people to misunderstand. I have too many Facebook friends gushing about how much pot has helped them.
The causality is definitely a concern. Maybe there is also some causality from the teen alternative of alcohol(?) But at least alcohol has good quality control, consistent potency.
The way that sentence* is worded, it basically says something like “if CUD causes schizophrenia, then one-fifth of cases of schizophrenia among young males might be prevented by averting CUD.” This is different from saying that “CUD definitely causes schizophrenia”, even though the association or correlation the study found is suggestive that such a statement could be true. (However, there could be other reasons for the correlation, such as people with schizophrenia being more likely to self-medicate with cannabis and fall into CUD.)
*“At a population level, assuming causality, one-fifth of cases of schizophrenia among young males might be prevented by averting CUD.”
Wouldn’t that be the case for legal marijuana from dispensaries. A huge problem with pot bought on the street are additives. I suspect most younger users here do not pay dispensary prices, I know several older people who refuse to as well.
Very helpful clarification of my post, thank you.
This mental illness has a very high number of adults that appear to self-medicate with different drugs and alcohol, as well as marijuana.
Also, some people just have one or two psychotic episodes triggered by drugs or stress, but then return to a normal baseline. Most doctors won’t diagnose schizophrenia unless there are several episodes that are unrelated to drugs. But some doctors may go ahead and diagnose immediately.
That’s a good point. But… that would mean the current high school worsened issues (other than edibles) can’t all be blamed on legalization.
To be honest, I’m torn on the issue of legalization. The one thing I was opposed to was Medical Marijuana legalization in CO. It was really abused. We’d hear stories about marketing near college campuses… “you could report you have a painful shoulder injury from snowboarding… “. And we’d see “doctor” offices springing up next door to Med MJ stores. I could be OK with it being legal or not in general, but I was not happy with the abuse of Medical law (though I did have compassion for the poeple who really needed it.)
If it comes to a vote in PA I’d vote for it to be legal. Too much is wasted in police time and $$ going after “basic” users. Then too, the tax money would be welcome to me.
I’d still have no desire to use it at all myself, just as I rarely drink alcohol. The two are quite similar. Yes, lives are ruined by drug abuse. They’re ruined by alcohol abuse too. I used real life examples in my classroom teachings, but mostly, it was just the facts about what one is doing to their body so they could decide if they wanted to partake or not (cigarettes and vaping too). Simply telling kids not to use something merely tempts them to do it. It’s part of how the brain develops at that age. Give them solid info to ponder with no strings attached and sometimes one gets a different response.
Prohibition didn’t work for alcohol. MJ being illegal isn’t working either.
My mom was approved for medical marijuana eight years ago for cancer (appetite, nausea), she passed away two months before her first appointment (fortunately we were easily able to hook her up). Now that recreational is also legal here one can order it online for pick up. Before it was legal pot was still easy for kids to buy here.
It is legal in my state, and it is highly regulated (I have a family member who used to work in the industry). I have known people who found success in regulating pain through marijuana without the type of side effects that pharmaceutical painkillers have (and research into proper dosing for these purposes is what I believe is lacking). I hope that legalization leads to fewer incarcerations for marijuana use … which has been around since I have been around, and which I doubt will stop regardless of legal status. Some communities have suffered more than others from incarceration for marijuana use.
I don’t use it and probably never will (unless a health condition makes it preferable to alternatives). I am well aware, however, that it has become much more potent over the years than it was in my youth. That happened prior to legalization. At least with legalization, potency is tested and the product is labeled.
As for young people and marijuana use, I agree that it is problematic. Just like with alcohol and cigarettes, legal access should be denied until the age of 21. Unfortunately, as with alcohol, there may well be issues during those early legal years, when the brain is not fully developed. Education is the best tool in this case, but of course, it’s not a perfect answer. Those predisposed to mental illness and/or addiction are definitely at risk of being adversely affected.
That’s just typical wording in medical research. You would find the same language in the association between nicotine usage and lung cancer. No scientific researcher ever claims absolute proof.
Prohibition had a long-lasting effect of reduced consumption, so in that context, it worked, and I would fully support it again. If the criterion for a similar ban is zero consumption, it will never “work.”
Alcohol and marijuana hurt people other than the users. Like murder, in an extreme sense. We have lost the war on murder, so do we just give up?
