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[NPR] Pediatricians Say Don't Lock Up Teenagers For Using Marijuana


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http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2015/01/26/381566448/pediatricians-say-dont-lock-up-teenagers-for-using-marijuana

 

MAANVI SINGH - Jan 26. 2014

 

marijuana-bud_custom-eb50fdac0930457d4a4

 

Across the country, efforts to make marijuana more accessible have quickly gained traction. Medical marijuana is now legal in 23 states, and recreational use is also legal in four states and the District of Columbia.
 
Science, however, hasn't quite caught up. Largely due to its illegal status, there's been very little research done on marijuana's health effects. And researchers don't fully understand how pot affects the developing teenage brain.
 
This may explain the why the nation's pediatricians have changed their recommendations on marijuana and children.
 
On Monday, the American Academy of Pediatrics revised its policy on medical marijuana, saying pediatricians should avoid prescribing it to children until more research is done, except in cases where patients are suffering from chronic, debilitating conditions. The pediatrics group is also recommending the decriminalization of weed, but it's advising against legalization.
 
Well, that's confusing. So we called up Dr. Seth Ammerman, a pediatrician at Stanford University who wrote the policy paper. Arresting teens who use pot won't do them any good, Ammerman says. Hundreds of thousands of adolescents and teens have been incarcerated for marijuana possession, "and the vast majority of marijuana-related arrests are minority youths."
 
The pediatricians' stance is that marijuana use among young people is a public health issue rather than a criminal justice issue, and it should be treated as such.
 
Its views on legalizing pot for recreational use, however, are more conservative.
 
"There's no evidence that legalizing will benefit youth," Ammerman tells Shots. "And the concern is that legalization will increase youth access to marijuana and maybe increase use."
 
Marijuana hasn't been legal anywhere in the U.S. for very long, so no one knows how these changing laws will affect teen usage rates. But if marijuana companies start marketing their products like alcohol and tobacco companies have done, kids and teens could be affected, Ammerman says.
 
"We would certainly be willing to revisit the issue as new data comes up," he adds. "But for now, let's not get into the position where we're looking back a decade from now and saying, 'Oh God, we've now addicted a bunch more kids.' "
 
Convincing kids that they should stay away from weed can get tricky, the pediatricians acknowledge, especially as support for legalization grows. Part of the issue is that campaigns to legalize marijuana often portray it as a benign substance, says Dr. Leslie Walker, chief of the adolescent medicine division at Seattle Children's Hospital.
 
"People make arguments that say, 'Oh, this is safer than alcohol, it's safer than tobacco, it's safer than heroin,' " Walker says. And all that may be true, she says. "But marijuana on its own is harmful for adolescents."
 
Preliminary research suggests that marijuana isn't good for teens' developing brains. And studies show that adolescents who use pot are more likely than adults to become addicted.
 
Of course, there is still a lot we don't know about marijuana, whether it's used recreationally or medicinally. The AAP policy paper recommends that the Drug Enforcement Agency remove marijuana from the Schedule 1 listing for controlled substances, so that it's easier for researchers to get hold of the substance and study it.
 
"In the meantime, there's definitely a risk of having a kind of mixed message for teens," says Brendan Saloner, an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "The frank answer is we don't know the best ways to communicate with teens about marijuana."
 
Refer-madness style scare tactics probably won't work, Saloner says. But both Walker and Ammerman recommend that parents be firm with kids. They should feel empowered to tell kids that using pot when you're under 21 isn't OK, even if they themselves use it. The AAP also recommends that parents set a good example by not smoking around kids.
 
In Colorado, where adult use is legal, Children's Hospital Colorado suggests that parents "present the facts to your child objectively and use them to explain why marijuana use is still illegal for people under age 21."
 
In states where marijuana is legal, there are ways to mitigate teen usage, Saloner says.
 
States can and should control the extent to which companies can advertise marijuana products, he says. "The biggest concern here is edibles — candies and cookies can look really appealing to kids and adolescents," he notes.
 
Research also shows that the price of alcohol and tobacco can deter adolescents from using it.
 
"I don't think my position is to say whether or not it's right or wrong to legalize it," Saloner says. "Still, there are better and worse ways in which to legalize marijuana."
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Any kid I know that wants to smoke pot now, smoke pots. It's illegal here and still easy as shit to get. I dont think legalizing would increase teen usage much at all, esp since it'd still be illegal for a minor....

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People who use it deserve 10 years minimum for making the rest of the population smell that horrid crap. Nothing irritates me more than sitting next to a pothead at school.

 

Spraying some cheap $3 cologne does not mask that horrid stench 

 

 

Plus, yeah its a drug and whatever

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I don't want to get into the whole pro-legalization\anti-legalization argument, but what I don't get is why weed is illegal and cigarettes and alcohol aren't, when both of them also have medical affects. Also - at the end of the day whoever wants to smoke it will smoke it, it's just a matter of where they'll be getting if from and how it got there.

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Legalize it and tax the fuck out of it. I'm sure most people that smoke pot would love to be able to acquire their weed in a safe, clean, regulated environment. Legalization could actually bring down the teen pot smoking rate. The commonness could reduce some of the "glamor" that pot has and could end up making dealers more obsolete as physical stores become more commonplace. 

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People need to stop with their fault weed info

 

If you mean, the faulty anti-weed info, then absolutely.

 

 

anti-weed propaganda is so ridiculous.

 

usually rattled off by people who have never smoked it... or smoked it once or twice.

 

The logical economical benefits of legalising and/or decriminalising marijuana are so numerous.... 

Instead people will harp on about the handful of detriments associated with abuse.... which, can be applied to anything...

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Children's Hospital Colorado suggests that parents "present the facts to your child objectively and use them to explain why marijuana use is still illegal for people under age 21."

fucking THIS

just talk to your kids. where i grew up, smoking marijuana is no big deal. it was just a thing people did and as kids we didn't use it and i partially credit that to our parents/elders being educated and letting us know its not for kids and why its not.

so yeah, parents need to educate themselves on marijuana and have an open dialogue with their kids about it. if the kid/teen/whatever wants to use it they probably will, its better for everyone involved to just about it.

 

and on point with the article, no minor should be locked up for marijuana charges. jfc give them probation and community service, jail would probably be worse for them than pot.

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and on point with the article, no minor should be locked up for marijuana charges. jfc give them probation and community service, jail would probably be worse for them than pot.

 

community service is in my opinion, the perfect punishment for marijuana consumption crimes.

 

The biggest issue with marijuana criminalisation is the incurred cost of prosecution for such a petty and high occurrence "crime". 

 

Instead of hemorrhaging money taking people, especially teens, to court over this stuff...locking them up for a month or longer......why not benefit society by making them do work in the community. Put them on probation...scare them straight... and have them give back... instead of take. It's all so logical.

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I don't want to get into the whole pro-legalization\anti-legalization argument, but what I don't get is why weed is illegal and cigarettes and alcohol aren't, when both of them also have medical affects. Also - at the end of the day whoever wants to smoke it will smoke it, it's just a matter of where they'll be getting if from and how it got there.


Legalize it and tax the fuck out of it. I'm sure most people that smoke pot would love to be able to acquire their weed in a safe, clean, regulated environment. Legalization could actually bring down the teen pot smoking rate. The commonness could reduce some of the "glamor" that pot has and could end up making dealers more obsolete as physical stores become more commonplace. 

 

fucking THIS
just talk to your kids. where i grew up, smoking marijuana is no big deal. it was just a thing people did and as kids we didn't use it and i partially credit that to our parents/elders being educated and letting us know its not for kids and why its not.
so yeah, parents need to educate themselves on marijuana and have an open dialogue with their kids about it. if the kid/teen/whatever wants to use it they probably will, its better for everyone involved to just about it.
 
and on point with the article, no minor should be locked up for marijuana charges. jfc give them probation and community service, jail would probably be worse for them than pot.

 

community service is in my opinion, the perfect punishment for marijuana consumption crimes.
 
The biggest issue with marijuana criminalisation is the incurred cost of prosecution for such a petty and high occurrence "crime". 
 
Instead of hemorrhaging money taking people, especially teens, to court over this stuff...locking them up for a month or longer......why not benefit society by making them do work in the community. Put them on probation...scare them straight... and have them give back... instead of take. It's all so logical.

 

 

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