Pothead Kids Turning Into Potato Heads?

Clouded by the PR smoke emanating from the legalized pot industry is the profound impact its liberalized availability & use has had on nation’s youth. Surprised by the latest health crisis? If so, what were you smoking?

The Fox News op ed by Kevin Sabet was curiously titled, “This is America’s surprising youth drug crisis.” Yet, how many critics of legalized marijuana warned of the likely targeting of kids by a multi-billion-dollar industry that would replay the playbook pioneered by Big Tobacco? That is, by lobbying & bankrolling legalization campaigns, then, quietly increasing “potency of the drug by more than four times since 1998, hoping to hook kids while they are young & vulnerable.”

The usage rates, Sabet notes, have “reached record highs,” and as the National Institute on Drug Abuse recently agreed, the percentage of 8th, 10th & 12th graders who used marijuana daily (which, btw, is “indicative of a use disorder” aka the road to addiction) has more than tripled between 1991 & 2020. Opined Sabet: “For all the talk about how pot is not addictive, in 2021, 1.3 million individuals between the ages of 12 & 17 had a marijuana use disorder, accounting for more than 46% of users in that age group … Though supporters of legalization like to downplay the risks … the drug caused more than 70K individuals younger than 18 to have marijuana-related emergency department visits in 2021.” Pot “snacks” targeting kids abound, he says, and “in 2021 … 1.36 million” teens admitted to driving under the influence of marijuana so that there were likely “2.41 times more minors on road under the influence of [pot] than … alcohol.” The op ed goes on. But, the picture is clear despite the industry’s PR smoke screen.

Davd Soul