New reports out of Colorado are adding fuel to an already smokey debate. The number of young pot smokers is up -- but is it too early to draw conclusions from the data?
According to a 2014 Healthy Kids Colorado survey, the number of 8th grade marijuana smokers in Denver was 350 percent higher than the national average. In the same report, 63 percent of Denver high schoolers said accessing marijuana is “sort of easy or very easy.”
Accidental ingestion of marijuana also spiked in 2014. Elizabeth Whitehead, a spokesperson for Children’s Hospital Colorado, said 14 children were admitted for ingesting the drug in 2014, compared to eight children in 2013. Of the 14, seven were treated in the intensive care unit, and two received intubation.
“For me, this is the birth of another tobacco industry, which was a public health and safety disaster,” said Bob Doyle, chair of Colorado Smart Approaches to Marijuana, or SAM.
Doyle said candy edibles are a way for the marijuana industry to attract consumers at a young age.
“Commercializing a drug doesn’t make us safer. It makes the industry wealthy, but the public health and safety harms are huge,” said Doyle, who has been fighting Big Tobacco for 20 years.
But Skyler McKinley, deputy director of marijuana coordination for governor, said it’s too soon to call the data on marijuana a trend.
“For us to really have a say in how it’s affecting kids, how it’s affecting public health, that’s really a five-to-ten-year problem,” McKinley said.
McKinley did admit, however, that there is “cause for concern,” and that’s part of the motivation behind a new educational campaign called “Good to Know.”
The $5.7 million campaign includes a website, social media pages and radio spots that explain how to safely and legally use marijuana.
Doyle said it’s not enough: “Sadly our state is now running a campaign that’s more to appease the marijuana industry than address marijuana use.”
He said the previous campaign was better because it cautioned adolescents against becoming “lab rats” for the marijuana industry.
For more information, visit these links:
http://www.goodtoknowcolorado.com/
www.learnaboutsam.com
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