The recent report from the U.S. Surgeon General on the harmful effects of marijuana on the developing brains of teenagers should be concerning to Ohio parents.
Possession of small amounts of marijuana have been reduced to no-jail misdemeanors in Toledo, and recently Michigan has moved to legalize marijuana for recreational use. Ohio is in the slow process of establishing a statewide program for allowing the sale of medicinal marijuana. The Ohio General Assembly recently legalized the product hemp, which is related to marijuana and which law enforcement has said is visually almost indistinguishable from pot.
All of these developments are expected to result in more widespread and open use of marijuana. One can assume that teens will come into possession of marijuana far more easily than when marijuana was entirely illegal.
According to the new health advisory from Surgeon General Jerome Adams, marijuana use can harm a growing fetus and a teen’s brain. He said that no amount of marijuana use during pregnancy or adolescence is safe. And yet, trends indicate that pregnant women and young people are becoming more likely to use the drug — and less likely to recognize the risks.
Dr. Adams also pointed out that the drug available today is more potent than it has been in years past. As he said, “this ain’t your mother’s marijuana.” The amount of THC, the psychotropic component in marijuana, has increased three to fivefold over the last few decades. And that doesn’t account for concentrated forms such as edibles, oils, and waxes.
Ohio was caught unawares by the opioid epidemic and was slow to react. A potential epidemic of excessive marijuana use is on the horizon. It doesn’t have to be a public health crisis if public health authorities and law enforcement don’t entirely let down their guard.
The most recent report from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, in 2018, reported that teen marijuana use remained low, less than half the level of the 1970s and 1980s. However, it was rising. An estimated 109,000 Ohio youths, ages 12 to 17, smoked marijuana at least once the previous year, up almost 5 percent from a year earlier.
Parents, state and county health officials, schools, and police can work together to maintain a strong resistance to marijuana use becoming tolerated among preadults.
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