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Calls to poison control centers and visits to emergency rooms have risen in Colorado and Washington.
DENVER — The first two states to legalize recreational marijuana are starting to grapple with teenagers’ growing use of highly potent pot, even as both boost the industry and reap huge tax windfalls from its sales.
Though the legal purchase age is 21 in Colorado and Washington, parents, educators and physicians say youths are easily getting hold of edibles infused with tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the psychoactive component that causes a high, and concentrates such as “shatter,” a brittle, honey-colored substance that is heated and then inhaled through a special device.
Each poses serious risks to adolescents’ physical and mental health.
“Underage kids have unbelievable access to nuclear-strength weed,” said Andrew Brandt, a Boulder, Colo., software executive whose son got hooked while in high school.
With some marijuana products averaging 68 percent THC – exponentially greater than the pot baby boomers once smoked – calls to poison control centers and visits to emergency rooms have risen. In the Denver area, visits to Children’s Hospital Colorado facilities for treatment of cyclic vomiting, paranoia, psychosis and other acute cannabis-related symptoms jumped to 777 in 2015, from 161 in 2005.
The increase was most notable in the years following legalization of medical sales in 2009 and retail use in 2014, according to a study in the Journal of Adolescent Health published in 2018.
“Horrible things are happening to kids,” said psychiatrist Libby Stuyt, who treats teens in southwestern Colorado and has studied the health impacts of high-potency marijuana. “I see increased problems with psychosis, with addiction, with suicide, with depression and anxiety.”
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A young adult's proximity to the location of medical marijuana dispensaries appears to be associated with a higher likelihood of marijuana use, with storefront advertising having the strongest influence on behavior. A RAND Corporation study examining trends in Los Angeles County drew this conclusion and is published online in the journal Addiction. “Our findings suggest that as the marijuana retail outlets become more visible and more numerous, they may influence the way that young adults perceive and use marijuana,” study lead author Regina Shih, a RAND senior behavioral scientist, said in a news release.
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imagine the suffering that could have been averted if these criminals hadn't been potheads:
- Ferguson's suicide-by-cop Michael Brown
- Aurora theater murderer James Holmes
- Islamic Boston Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
- Miami cannibal Rudy Eugene
- Trayvon Martin
- Baltimore's Freddie Gray
- Manchester Muslim terrorist Salman Abedi
- Vegas Strip murderer Lakeisha Holloway
- Planned Parenthood shooter Robert Lewis Dear
- Infamous murderer Jodi Arias
- Chattanooga's Islamic terrorist Muhammad Abdulazeez
- Tuscon massacre mass murderer James Loughner, and many more.
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Scientists have warned that smoking weed can affect fertility in both men and women. They say that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) – the psychoactive ingredient in the cannabis plant – can have an effect on the reproductive organs. Here are five things the scientists want you to know about marijuana and fertility:
- The active ingredient in marijuana, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), acts on the receptors found in the hypothalamus, pituitary and internal reproductive organs in both males and females.
- Marijuana use can decrease sperm count. Smoking marijuana more than once a week was associated with a 29% reduction in sperm count in one study.
- Marijuana may delay or prevent ovulation. In a small study, ovulation was delayed in women who smoked marijuana more than 3 times in the 3 months before the study.
- Marijuana may affect the ability to conceive in couples with subfertility or infertility but does not appear to affect couples without fertility issues.
- More, and better quality, research is needed into the effects of marijuana on fertility.
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Smart Alternatives to Marijuana: Commercialized Cannabis Recipe for Community & Health Care Chaos! Colorado Clear Contender!