TEENAGERS AND MARIJUANA

More potent weed puts today's kids at greater risk for health and
social problems

If you're a baby boomer, don't lull yourself into thinking that
marijuana is a fading fad that represents a modest threat to today's
youth.

You'd be wrong.

Nearly half of today's teenagers try marijuana before graduating from
high school, and by their senior year more than 20 percent are regular
users, Science Daily reported in May.

More teens use marijuana than all other illegal drugs combined, and
they are at greater risk than teens who smoked pot a couple of decades
ago.

Why? Because a federal report issued last month said marijuana sold in
the United States is at least twice as potent as it was in 1983 and
has reached the highest level of potency since scientific analysis of
street samples began in the late 1970s.

The University of Mississippi's Potency Monitoring Project said the
levels of THC -- the main psychoactive substance in marijuana -- was
9.6 percent in recently seized samples compared to an average of just
under 4 percent in 1983.

"Baby boomer parents who still think marijuana is a harmless substance
need to look at the facts," said John Walters, director of National
Drug Control Policy, in a statement issued about the University of
Mississippi analysis.

"It's much more potent than what they smoked at Woodstock," echoed Jim
Cowser, a chemical dependency therapist in the Center for Behavioral
Health at Baptist Hospital East.

A more recent style of smoking marijuana also is intensifying its
impact. "During the '60s, there were mostly joints," said Dr.
Elizabeth Garcia-Gray, chief medical officer of child psychiatric
services for Seven Counties Services Inc.

"Now we have blunts, which are like two or three joints packed in
one," she explained.

A blunt is a cigar hollowed out and filled with marijuana.

"When they pack it up in blunts, the potency is much more, and if they
smoke four or five blunts a day, it's like 10 to 12 joints," she explained.

"Long-term use or short-term high-content (potency) use can lead to
depression," said Garcia-Gray.

Or it can worsen already existing depression. A report issued by the
Office of National Drug Control Policy this spring said teens who
self-medicate their depression with pot can compound their illness.

Mental health risks

Besides worsening depression, teens who use
marijuana put themselves at higher risk for other serious mental
health problems, including schizophrenia and anxiety, the White House
report said.

The report is titled "Teen Marijuana Use Worsens Depression: An Analysis of
Recent Data Shows 'Self-Medicating' Could Actually Make Things Worse."

Depressed teens are more than twice as likely as others to abuse or
become dependent on marijuana, the report said.

At a news conference accompanying the release of the report, Dr. Larry
Greenhill, president-elect of the American Academy of Child and
Adolescent Psychiatry, said, "The benign quality of marijuana, which
has been an assumption since the '60s, is now seriously questioned by
researchers, scientists and doctors."

Robert Daniels, supervisor of the Louisville Adolescent Network for
Substance Abuse Treatment, which helps teens and their families with
alcohol and drug problems, is glad to see marijuana use get more
attention and study.

"Locally, you can predict that marijuana is No. 1 and alcohol is No. 2
among the adolescent population (that uses drugs)," he reported.

He said research has shown that if a child uses marijuana before age
15 then his average "career of use" will last 27 years unless you get
him treatment quickly.

Easier to get

Cowser said cannabis may lead alcohol as the No. 1
substance abused by teens because it "is easier to conceal and a lot
more accessible" than alcohol.

He said the mental health consequences of marijuana use range from
transient amnesia to intensifying depressive disorders. Marijuana also
may trigger an early onset of schizophrenia in those at risk for the
illness.

Other dangers: lung damage and social and behavioral problems.
Marijuana used when driving can make it difficult to judge distances
and react to signals and sounds on the road. Marijuana affects
judgment, perception and memory, so it can mean poor performance in
school, in sports or at a job. It can lead to risky sexual behavior.

Cowser reports that withdrawal from marijuana can take longer than
withdrawing from alcohol or cocaine. He said the THC in marijuana
accumulates in the fat tissues, which are slow to release the chemical.

Those who work with teen addicts urge parents and other adults who
supervise or influence teens to take marijuana abuse seriously.
Parents should open up a dialogue before there is a problem.

"Don't avoid the discussion," Cowser urged.