PARENTS IGNORING MARIJUANA PROBLEM, RESEARCH SHOWS

St. Paul comedian Dwight York talks about marijuana causing short-term
memory loss, then repeats the joke five minutes later. But if adults knew
about the long-term effects, researchers say, they wouldn't be so blase
about the possibility that their teen-age children are smoking pot.

In an age when teens can get their hands on coke, crank, crack, smack,
cigarettes, LSD, ecstasy and God-knows-what in a bottle, research shows
more young people are turning to marijuana. On top of that, more are doing
so at a younger age.

Parental indifference is among the reasons, experts say, adding that many
believe marijuana, in comparison to other drugs, is "soft." Researchers say
adults are ignoring the cancers, reproductive disorders, addictions and
other serious health problems tied to marijuana.

"Drugs go through fads, like fashion, but marijuana has never really left
us," says Dr. Susan Dalterio, a life scientist with the University of
Texas, San Antonio.

Dalterio, who has studied the trends and effects of marijuana use for 15
years, talks about regional and national research, along with associated
concerns, from 7 to 9 tonight at the Radisson Hotel and Conference Center
in Plymouth. Among the findings she will address: Between 1992 and 1995,
monthly marijuana use in the Twin Cities rose from 4 perrcent to 14.5
percent among nineth-graders and from 10 percent to 18.5 percent among high
school seniors participating in the annual Minnesota Student Survey.

"Other drugs are more acutely dangerous, but that doesn't mean marijuana
can't hurt you," Dalterio says. "People think if something doesn't kill
you, it's not so bad. But marijuana works in a very different time frame
than drugs like cocaine and crack. The effects are more subtle, but they
can be very serious and permanent."

Along with short-term loss of memory and concentration, Dalterio says,
marijuana weakens the immunity and respiratory systems and can damage the
reproductive systems in men and women.

"And anyone who tells you pot isn't addicting has been smoking it for years
and years," Dalterio says, explaining that regular marijuana smokers are
fixed on releases of doparnine, a chemical in the brain that works as an
anti-depressant.

The chemical, also released naturally during short bursts of excitement,
flows at unnatural levels when people regularly smoke marijuana. So when
people stop smoking altogether, they often feel depressed. They don't
connect it to the cutoff of dopamine; they only know they felt better when
they were high, Dalterio says, so they start smoking pot again.

Compared to cigarettes, she adds, marijuana has more of the hydrocarbons
leading to cancers of the lungs, bladder and elsewhere. And because
marijuana is grown and sold without quality controls, it contains fungal
spores and other potentially harmful bacteria, Dalterio says.

"People think that because it grows in nature, it's safe. But there are
lots of mushrooms and poisonous wildflowers you shouldn't take into your
system," Dalterio says. "And the idea of smoking marijuana as a medication,
at this point, is a big mistake. You wouldn't take aspirin or any other
medication if it were produced under the same conditions."

The prognosis for teens today is worse than it was for those who started
smoking marijuana 20 years ago, researchers say, citing more potent plants
and the trend of smoking "blunts"- pot rolled into cleanod-out and resealed
cigar wraps.

As it is, in 1996, more Minnesota teens were accepted into treatment
centers for marijuana addiction .(11 percent) than for cocaine
(14.5:percent). Of those in for marijuana, more than one third were,younger
than 18.

Carol Falkowski, an epidemiologist and senior research analyst with ?Iden
Foundation in Celit?? Minn., is particularly alarmed more kids are starting
to take pot before entering high school. Falkowski cites her own informal
survey of students in the Minneapolis public schools who said that, at
between $3 and $5 for a joint, it was easier to get their hands on pot than
on alcohol.

"Twenty years ago, hippies weren't saying 'Hey, let's get my fifth-grade
sister loaded,'" she says. "But now kids are getting into it when they're
not old enough to have the emotional and psychological skills to (handle)
mind-altering substances."