By Ed Bruder
In full disclosure, I am a Trustee for the Town of Lyons, a patient advocate member of the Department of Revenue’s (DoR) Medical Marijuana Working Group, I am a patient myself, a caregiver, and a current business license holder. At this time I have NO financial interest in any medical marijuana business. I write this as an individual member of these various communities. I don’t speak for the Board of Trustees (BoT), and I don’t speak for anyone else but myself.
It has been important to consider the mounting body of research demonstrating the multiple therapeutic benefits of cannabis use in this discussion. However, I would be remiss to not point out the areas of research that have proven that cannabis use, for the developing pre-teen and teenage brain is potentially dangerous.
Last November at the Society for Neuroscience’s annual conference, a Harvard Medical School researcher presented the results of a study that found that; “Young adults, who started smoking marijuana as adolescents or teens, had greater
decreases in cognitive function and more problems with attention and focus than their peers who didn’t use the drug. Pot smokers who began using the drug on a regular basis prior to the age of 16 smoked twice as often, and three times the quantity as users who began after age 16.”
This study’s results revealed: “Brain imaging tests showed changes in activity in the prefrontal cortex of the chronic pot smokers.” This brain region relates to planning complex cognitive behaviors, personality expression, decision-making and moderating correct social behavior. The psychological term most often used to describe this region’s activities are called, “Executive Functions.” Executive function relates to abilities to differentiate among conflicting thoughts, determine good and bad, better and best, same and different, future consequences of current activities, working toward a defined goal, prediction of outcomes, expectation based on actions, and social “control” (the ability to suppress urges that, if not suppressed, could lead to socially-unacceptable outcomes).
For a long time, it was thought that the brain had fully developed during childhood, but considerable research has shown that during adolescence there is profound brain growth and change. Between childhood and adulthood the brain’s “wiring diagram” becomes more complex and more efficient, with the greatest changes occurring in the prefrontal cortex. Some doctors go as far as say that during the teenage years the frontal lobe shuts down for this rewiring. (Which may explain teenage behavior.) The prefrontal cortex does not reach full maturity until between 18-25 years of age, so repeated exposure to cannabis during ones adolescent years is believed to handicap or hinder, the development potential of the prefrontal cortex.
While adults’ prefrontal cortexes are highly activated in certain areas when they resist impulses, children’s are not. Researchers discovered that adults “think” with the prefrontal cortex, the rational part of the brain. Teens on the other hand, process information with the amygdala, the instinctual and emotional part of the brain involved in the detection and early processing of stimuli not available to conscious awareness.
In the real world, this lack of a strong impulse control center means that teens are less able to withstand the temptation of a new reward, even if it comes with certain risks. The study found that adults who regularly used marijuana as teens, were more impulsive than non-pot smoking adults. The study’s authors interpret their findings to suggest that multiple processes underlie impulsivity, some of which are directly affected by marijuana.
The prefrontal cortex is populated with CB1 receptors, and even in the adult brain, prolonged, high dosage use of cannabis can lead to numerous affective disorders. (Think back to all of your stoner buddies from high school) So if you think of the teenage brain as a ball of wet clay, the way it is handled before it dries by either prescription medications like Ritalin or smoked marijuana, can leave permanent marks.
Other compelling research done in British Columbia found that “Teenagers who start smoking marijuana before the age of sixteen are four times more likely to become schizophrenic.” These conclusions, by some of the world’s top schizophrenia experts, are featured in the documentary film “The Downside of High.”
As much as I want to distinguish the differences between medicinal and recreational use of cannabis, it is not as easy as it may seem on the surface. For I submit that many people that consider their use as merely recreational, are in fact, self-medicating.
Before I became a caregiver, I spent almost 16 years, in sessions with over 6,500 people from all over the world, as a medical intuitive. I worked for doctors, psychotherapists and even the occasional psychiatrist. I learned a lot about the human condition through the individual challenges, afflictions, and emotional and spiritual health of these people that came to me seeking insight. I will not delve too deeply, or detour too far here, but believe me when I say, that humans self-medicate all the time.
Some people medicate with alcohol, sex, work, drugs, shopping, working out, amassing power or wealth and many other modalities of expression. And they do it without putting much thought into it. For whatever reason, and I suspect there are many, since the beginning of time, humans have been exploring ways to alter their consciousness. If there is a way to feel better, some humans are all about it. These acts of self-medication are often referred to as “things that get daddy through the day”. That’s medicating in the most basic sense.
Beyond that, Americans spend billions of dollars altering their consciousness with the likes of any of a number of anti depressants, and mood stabilizers generously prescribed by the medical community, and promoted through the media by pharmaceutical companies. At some point society as a whole needs to stop and ask; with all we have, and all we know, why are so many unable to function organically? How far must we be living outside of our design if it requires so many people to medicate? Is all that we have, create and desire bringing us closer to some kind of inner harmony?
Sadly, I still see many of today’s teens feeling the need to regularly alter their consciousness. This is nothing new; every generation has done it, but the stakes keep rising. I am still shocked to see how many of the high schoolers smoke cigarettes. From the perspective of an adult constantly dealing with adult issues, it doesn’t make rational sense, that at a time of very limited responsibility, when their bodies are strong, healthy, and new, teens feel unfulfilled enough to need an escape that puts their futures at risk.
Understanding that the part of their brain that would make them see the light is not yet developed, does not solve the problem. If it’s bad now, with no mortgage payment over their heads and no need for colonoscopies, how will they cope with the future? I experienced the horror and wonder of my own teenaged years, with- out the need to use alcohol or drugs, but most of the people I knew and loved did not. If I was a teen today, exposed to what teens are regularly exposed to, I don’t know how I would fare.
If only all the technology that provides them with instant gratification, all the scientific advances in make up and pimple reduction, the simplicity that Googling adds to finding out anything you want to know about the world, and all the “pokes” from your friends on facebook could fill the void. But it doesn’t.
For whatever it’s worth, I feel very strongly that one should actually develop a consciousness, before attempting to alter it. For the record, I completely discourage the recreational use of cannabis by teenagers. Just the fact that it MAY impair the brain’s development is good enough for me. For one reason, if a teenager uses marijuana regularly, it may be masking a more serious mental health issue that with the proper intervention would not negatively impact their life.
Additionally, a lot of the teens that I speak to use marijuana as a coping mechanism. At a time in their life when they should be gaining skills to manage the cause and effect that is life, many choose to just get high instead of dealing with the issue-like not dealing with it will make it really go away. Learning how to effectively deal with relationships, expectations, needs, and desires is part of what adolescence is about. Society as a whole and parents in particular need to be reminded that we need to facilitate that learning and experience.
“How do we protect the children?” I am often asked. As I have painstakingly laid out through the course of these articles, there are more than enough rules and regulations in place to govern the medical marijuana industry. Just last week a number of arrests were made locally, of individuals that have been suspected of operating an illegal medical marijuana farm. If during their due process, they are found to have been acting illegally, then they will face the consequences. The system works.
I recently spoke to a mother that lamented that her over achieving, Boulder High School graduate son was not accepted into the top two universities he wanted to attend. His grades warranted admission, but because he was caught once on school property with a joint, and another time with a group of students, smoking pot at a football game, the more desirable universities passed on his application. These infractions were a part of his school transcript. I could sympathize with her when she said, “his lapse of poor judgment will probably cost him, a better education, a better job, and a better life.”
As a resident of this town and a member of the Board of Trustees, I am going to suggest that the Town modify it’s own municipal code, which currently says it’s legal for “any person” to possess up to an ounce of marijuana. Even if it is no more than a symbolic attempt to take a position, adding a minimum age limit to who can possess an ounce of cannabis would be a step in the right direction. If we really want to discuss how to protect the children then we should consider a couple other things. Though some of these steps may seem counter intuitive, just give it some thought.
The quasi-legal status of cannabis use in Amsterdam has provided the world with some interesting data. Mitch Earleywine, Ph.D., the author of “Understanding Marijuana,” states, “Teen marijuana use there is a little lower than it is in the United States. Adult use is about the same as it is here, but the transition to hard drugs is nowhere near the problem there that it is here in the United States. In part, because they have separated the cannabis market from the hard drug market. So if somebody wants cannabis they aren’t exposed to hard drugs, because they can go to a place where no one is going to try to push crack on them, when really all they want is a gram of marijuana.”
Portugal has decriminalized all drugs under the auspices of public health protection, citing that it is better to treat a person than imprison them. According to Harvard Professor Jeffrey Miron, Ph.D, “Studies looked at usage rates before and after the decriminalization in Portugal and the analysis was that use, if anything, went down. And the negatives associated with the drug’s use were lower after legalization then they were before. So things like crime, STD’s (and HIV transmission), and unwanted pregnancies all have declined rather than increased.”
A big problem that I have with the current scheduling of marijuana, is that it is telling anyone willing to research what is on the schedule, that marijuana is more dangerous to them than cocaine, amphetamines, and opiates. We should be honest about marijuana. Even with its potential to harm the developing teenage brain, marijuana is far less harmful to ones overall health than tobacco and is less addicting than caffeine. Marijuana’s cost to society is mostly measured in the money spent incarcerating people for possessing it. In the U.S. the top three causes of death are 1- Tobacco, 2- Alcohol, and 3- Adverse reactions to prescription drugs. Those causes account for 573,340 deaths. There’s none attributed to cannabis use. That does not mean that cannabis is harmless, nor does it mean that we should do nothing.
I have started a dialogue that I hope will bring about change. I will be meeting soon with Boulder County Health and Human Services, the School Districts, and the District Attorneys office and I am compiling information on diversion programs that are being used in other states to really “protect the children”. In my opinion, a 14-year-old smoking pot is a family matter; it need not be a police matter. However, if it takes the police to direct the help that the person needs, so be it. It should be noted that buried in HB-1284 is the mandate to dedicate money to setup intervention and treatment options for people in need. I think this is the direction we need to go.
Likewise, unless there are aggravating circumstances, there should be a way that once a student has completed a diversion program, they can have the marijuana related offense removed from his or her record. If the reason the teen is smoking pot is a problem in the home, there should be a direct mechanism in place to either solve the problem, or at least intervene on behalf of the child. There is an old navigational saying that is appropriate here, “The sooner you correct your course, the easier it is to get to your destination.” Such is life.
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