Underage cannabis use – MJ Shareholders https://mjshareholders.com The Ultimate Marijuana Business Directory Mon, 01 Oct 2018 21:30:52 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.3 Eat, smoke or vape: Teens not too picky about cannabis choices https://mjshareholders.com/eat-smoke-or-vape-teens-not-too-picky-about-cannabis-choices/ Mon, 01 Oct 2018 21:30:52 +0000 http://www.thecannifornian.com/?p=16858
There is no doubt that some high school students will try to get high. However, the ways they’re doing it might be changing.

A survey of more than 3,000 10th-graders from 10 high schools in Los Angeles showed that while traditional combustible marijuana is still the most popular method, kids are turning to edible and vaporized weed, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open today.

Because of L.A.’s size and diversity, the researchers said, the patterns of cannabis use they tracked provide insights about “a wide cross-section” of American teens. They found that 62 percent of students who had ever tried marijuana had used multiple kinds and around 8 percent tried all three forms.

Those findings were consistent with the impressions of Andrew G., a 15-year-old from the Washington, D.C., area. (Kaiser Health News is not fully identifying him because he is a minor.) While he doesn’t use marijuana, he guessed that more than half of his peers have tried it. He also knows people who have used it in all three forms.

“I feel like because it’s being incorporated in new ways — edibles, vaping — the stigma has been broken,” he said.

This attitude of wider acceptance and greater access worries researchers. “We are concerned about the developing teen brain, the potential effects on cognitive development, mood and exposure to cannabinoids and chemicals in these various products,” said Adam Leventhal, an author on the study and a professor at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California.

Leventhal called this “polyproduct use” alarming for a number of reasons.

A major one is that the body processes these forms of cannabis differently. Smoking or vaping likely has a more immediate effect, while eating it takes a longer time for the body to process. Teens might not realize how much they’re ingesting, Leventhal said.

Also, “these novel products could be drawing in youth who could be otherwise be deterred,” he added, referring to a range of commercially available cannabinoid-infused products such as gummy bears and energy drinks.

If kids are consuming many different products, he said, it increases the potential risk for addiction.

“It’s a parallel issue. We definitely do see teens who use more different forms of nicotine and tobacco products are at more risk of addiction,” Leventhal said.

The study was a cross-sectional survey of 10th-graders in the Los Angeles area. It was conducted from Jan. 2, 2015, to Oct. 6, 2015. The location and timing of the survey was important, noted the researchers, because California legalized medical cannabis in 1996. In 2018, it became one of nine states to allow the sale for recreational use.

The findings, Leventhal said, could be an early warning for a trend that will only increase as more states legalize marijuana. Specifically, cannabis products appear to be gaining ground among teens compared with other substances.

Teen alcohol and nicotine use, for example, has been on the decline for years, according to Monitoring the Future, a multidecade survey conducted by the University of Michigan.

“It’s really a public health and policy success story,” Richard Miech, the survey’s principal investigator, wrote in an email. “In contrast, marijuana use hasn’t declined much at all in the past two decades.” He was not involved in the JAMA study.

Leventhal also highlighted a socioeconomic element in the findings.

Traditionally, kids who were in a higher socioeconomic bracket were at a lower risk of using marijuana, he said. That’s still true for traditional and edible cannabis, but wealthier kids were more likely to use vaporized weed, according to the study.

Leventhal thinks the popularity of vaping is pulling more kids and teenagers into marijuana use. It removes some of the common barriers that keeps kids away from drugs: there’s no telltale smell that would alert parents, no harshness in their lungs and a perception that it’s safer than traditional smoke.

“The same vaporizer could be used, teens can load in a liquid on one day with nicotine and the next day a liquid that has THC or another cannabinoid,” Leventhal said.

And then it might be harder for parents or teachers to detect kids’ drug use.

Getting caught with a bag of marijuana plants could immediately get a kid in trouble. But if a parent finds a vape that looks like a normal e-cigarette, or a package of gummy bears laced with THC, they might not realize what they’re seeing.

Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente. This article was made available through the Associated Press wire.

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Parent who sold marijuana to high school kids gets prison https://mjshareholders.com/parent-who-sold-marijuana-to-high-school-kids-gets-prison/ Mon, 27 Aug 2018 18:30:19 +0000 http://www.thecannifornian.com/?p=16385

The mother of a Cathedral Catholic High School student was sentenced Friday to 11 years, eight months in state prison after admitting she had guided a teen to sell drugs to a network of other students.

“It’s absolutely sickening to the court,” San Diego Superior Court Judge Timothy Walsh said of the actions by Kimberly Dawn Quach, 49.

He imposed the harshest penalty on Quach that was available to him under terms of a plea agreement.

The judge also sentenced Quach’s former boyfriend, William Sipperley, 50, to six years and four months in prison for his role in growing and pricing marijuana products.

“It was a business partnership,” the judge said. “He provided the marijuana and Ms. Quach would get the customers.”

Quach’s ex-husband and two friends pleaded with the judge to be lenient, saying Quach loved her family, was highly remorseful and hoped to become a productive member of society again.

The judge reacted to their comments by saying Quach had “set a horrible example” and exposed her two children, ages 17 and 10, to “extreme danger” from drugs in the home.

Authorities say Quach taught a 16-year-old girl to sell pot to other students at Cathedral High in Carmel Valley as well as to students in La Jolla from January to September 2017.

Quach hosted student parties at her home and provided them with a variety of narcotics, including a synthetic heroin, as well as alcohol and nicotine, Deputy District Attorney Christina Eastman said in court.

“There was no limit on what she would provide,” Eastman said. “She was setting up a full-fledged distribution business on the backs of children. Her clients were children.”

In May, Quach pleaded guilty to five charges related to drug possession or sales. She has remained in custody for about a year.

Sipperley pleaded guilty in May to two charges, including using a teen to sell marijuana.

According to a search warrant affidavit filed in October, Quach came under suspicion after parents of a teenager found suboxone, a synthetic heroin, in their daughter’s room. They also uncovered text messages between Quach and their daughter, who was friends with one of Quach’s children.

“It is known at the school that if you need anything, you can have Quach buy it for you,” a San Diego police investigator wrote in the search warrant affidavit.

When police searched the home Quach shared with Sipperley and her children, they found marijuana drying on tables throughout the home, as well as equipment to grow the plants.

Sipperley left the area before Quach was arrested. He was eventually found and jailed.

Quach spoke to the judge through tears before she was sentenced, saying “no one is to blame but me” and that she has taken advantage of rehabilitation classes and church services while in jail.

“I’d like to prove to my family and the court I can come out (of prison) a better person,” Quach said.

© 2018 The San Diego Union-Tribune. Visit The San Diego Union-Tribune at www.sandiegouniontribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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Poison control centers say number of children ingesting marijuana edibles is way up https://mjshareholders.com/poison-control-centers-say-number-of-children-ingesting-marijuana-edibles-is-way-up/ Mon, 16 Jul 2018 15:00:29 +0000 http://www.thecannifornian.com/?p=15868 State and local officials say they are alarmed by a spike in calls they have received to report children and teenagers ingesting marijuana products since California legalized cannabis for recreational use by adults in 2016.

The number of calls to poison control centers involving people 19 and younger who were exposed to marijuana has steadily risen from 347 three years ago to 588 last year. In the first six months of this year, there have been 386 calls to poison control centers involving marijuana exposure by underage people. If that trend continues, there could be more than double the reports in 2018 as there were 2015.

Nearly half of the calls received last year — 256 — involved children 5 and younger, including 38 children under 12 months old, and 64 toddlers who were a year old, according to Stuart E. Heard, executive director of the California Poison Control System.

In this Jan. 4, 2018 photo, marijuana edibles are displayed at the Apothecary Shoppe marijuana dispensary in Las Vegas. (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP)

“Parents and families should be aware that as marijuana becomes more and more available in various forms, it should be treated as any other potentially harmful product and be kept safely and securely away from children,” Heard said.

California voters approved legalization through Proposition 64 in November 2016, and the state began licensing businesses to sell cannabis to people age 21 and older on Jan. 1. Californians were allowed to grow, possess and use pot for recreational purposes immediately after the ballot measure was approved.

In some cases, children find their parents’ stash and ingest it, not knowing what it is. Some older teenagers involved in reports to poison control are experimenting with pot they buy outside of retail stores on the black market.

Heard said a big part of the problem is that some marijuana is processed into edibles, including candy, cookies and brownies that are not readily identifiable by children as being tainted with drugs.

Last year, cannabis-laced gummy snacks sold by a student at a middle school in Chula Vista made some of his classmates sick. The year before, 19 people were sickened and hospitalized when marijuana-laced gummy ring candies were consumed at a quinceañera party in San Francisco, Heard said.

Most of those sickened at the San Francisco party ranged in age from 6 to 18 years old, with many experiencing a rapid heart rate, dilated pupils, high blood pressure, dizziness, lethargy, confusion and nausea, according to the San Francisco Department of Public Health.

The candies and at least a dozen of those sickened tested positive for tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.

Emergency room physicians also are seeing an uptick in underage patients with health concerns caused by marijuana ingestion.

Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles saw 11 emergency room visits for marijuana-related problems during the first three months of this year, compared with four during the same period last year and three during that period in 2016, according to Lorenzo Benet, a hospital spokesman.

Ten of the patients this year were younger than 18, he said.

Kevin A. Sabet, who heads a national group opposed to cannabis legalization, noted that there has been a similar increase in marijuana poisoning calls in other states that legalized marijuana, including Washington.

“To have such a spike in this number so early is a big warning signal,” said Sabet, president of the group Smart Approaches to Marijuana. “This should give serious public health officials in California pause. We need to slow this freight train down and rein in this industry.”

Supporters of legalization for adults said the issue is being addressed by the state’s enforcement of new rules that prohibit the sale and marketing of marijuana and pot edibles to minors, and that require child-resistant packaging.

“Edibles are attractive to young people and pets,” said Dale Gieringer, director of California NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws). “The new labeling and packaging rules mandated by Prop. 64 should alleviate the problem.”

Reports of marijuana exposure to poison control centers also might be up because “people feel freer to call poison centers now that use is legal,” Gieringer said.

Minors in the state have been allowed to use marijuana for medical purposes for two decades.

Heard said his records do not include any fatalities among underage patients for exposure to marijuana, and most of the calls regarding children involve “minor to moderate” medical issues.

“Every once in a while there is a serious problem,” he said. “If they are showing any signs or symptoms that are serious, we usually recommend they see their physician.”

According to calls from worried parents, a larger number of the teenagers experience “moderate effects” from consuming pot, and more of them ingest the marijuana on purpose, Heard said.

“Harmful effects in children can include a decreased level of alertness and activity, difficulty with breathing and low blood pressure,” Heard added. “In brief, kids and cannabis don’t mix.”

© 2018 the Los Angeles Times. Visit the Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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