ABUSE MAGAZINE
marijuana
920 West Prairie Avenue • Coeur D ’ Alene , ID
208-772-3214
We proudly support preventative education for our youth !
1604 North 4th Street Coeur D ’ Alene , ID
208-664-1913
We support preventative education for our youth ! We care and get involved !
1316 North 4th Street • Coeur D ’ Alene , ID 208-676-9730
We are proud to be a drug free workplace and proudly support our youth !
215 West Kathleen Avenue • Coeur D ’ Alene
208-664-4800
Proudly supporting ABUSE Preventative Education for our youth ! kids think marijuana is safe , but pot is harmful to their developing brains
Have you heard about the group of third graders in Sonora , California who were caught smoking marijuana in the elementary school bathroom ? Yup . It happened last week . You can read about it here . The police chief said the 8 and 9 year-olds are too young to face criminal charges .
It ’ s an unusual case , thank goodness , because drug use among the early tween set is far from common . In older tweens , however , it ’ s a bit more common . The University of Michigan ’ s Monitoring the Future study surveyed 40,000 students and found that there was a slight increase in the number of kids using drugs . More and more kids also believe that pot isn ’ t dangerous .
They ’ re wrong .
Photo Source : www . gorod . lv
Researchers found approximately 13 % of 8th graders used marijuana . That number jumped to 30 % of 10th graders and 36 % in 12th grade .
While the number of tokers has increased , the number of kids who think pot is risky has decreased . A full 60 % believe it is harmless , which researchers at the National Institutes of Health have shown may be the result of campaigns in several states to legalize marijuana .
What is okay for adults , however , may not be okay for tweens and teens ( despite their protests to the contrary ) and scientific
studies shows that pot is no exception .
Marijuana impacts the developing brain of kids differently than it impacts the adult brain . Many researchers are making the case that kids and marijuana do not belong together .
“ It ’ s the absolute worst time [ to smoke marijuana ],” Krista Lisdahl , director of the brain imaging and neuropsychology lab at University of Wisconsin , Milwaukee , told NPR .
They likely have no idea how smoking pot can impact memory processing as well as the ability to control emotions . A tween or teen ’ s brain absorbs marijuana differently than a fully developed brain .
“[ F ] or adolescents , these are issues that they struggle with anyway because of their developmental period ,” said Kathy Meyers , a senior research scientist at Treatment Research Institute in Philadelphia , when interviewed by WHYY . She said the perception that marijuana can relieve symptoms for people does not mean that it is a medicine and does not mean that it is harmless .
Kids need to know that there are shortterm and long-term effects that come with smoking pot . The short-term impact can mean not making the play in the big game or impacting GPA because it ’ s harder to remember something for a test .
12 | Idaho Spring / Summer 2014 | abusemagazine . org
Source : http :// kidshealth . org / kid / grow / drugs _ alcohol / know _ drugs _ marijuana . html