Educate yourself and your children about marijuana risks

There are many rea­sons why teens choose to use mar­i­juana. Some may see fam­ily mem­bers or friends using mar­i­juana; oth­ers may feel pres­sured or are curi­ous about the drug. Some younger chil­dren may become curi­ous about mar­i­juana when they see “Pot­head Lol­lipops” and “Pot­head Ring Pots” in con­ve­nience stores or online.

“Pot­head Lol­lipops” and “Pot­head Ring Pots” are sour apple fla­vored can­dies that are shaped like leaves from a mar­i­juana plant and could attract the atten­tion of younger chil­dren. The candy comes in a bag depict­ing a car­toon char­ac­ter smok­ing a joint and form­ing a peace sign with his fin­gers and the word “legal­ize” printed beside the pot-smoking char­ac­ter. Many crit­ics believe the car­toon image will attract younger chil­dren and encour­age them to try the real thing. The man­u­fac­turer of the candy, Kalan LP, has reported the candy is intended to pro­mote the legal­iza­tion of marijuana.

The con­tro­versy over the legal­iza­tion of mar­i­juana con­tin­ues in most states. Pro­po­nents have said that mar­i­juana is just as safe as tobacco and alco­hol, which are both legal sub­stances in the United States. But many stud­ies have shown that mar­i­juana can have even more harm­ful long-term health effects than tobacco and can be just as dan­ger­ous for dri­vers as those who drive under the influ­ence of alcohol.

Mar­i­juana smok­ers could be at higher risk of can­cer than tobacco smok­ers. Accord­ing to the U.S. Depart­ment of Health, mar­i­juana smoke can con­tain more cancer-causing chem­i­cals than tobacco smoke. Some stud­ies have shown that some­one who smokes four to five joints a day may be exposed to as many cancer-causing chem­i­cals as some­one who smokes an entire pack of cig­a­rettes in a day. Other stud­ies have shown long term use of mar­i­juana can have a neg­a­tive effect on the male repro­duc­tive system.

Mar­i­juana also has adverse effects on many skills needed to oper­ate a motor vehi­cle. The National Insti­tute on Drug Abuse reports that 34– per­cent of dri­vers who were admit­ted to a Mary­land hos­pi­tal due to injuries from a motor vehi­cle crash tested pos­i­tive for mar­i­juana, com­pared to 16 per­cent test­ing pos­i­tive for alco­hol only. Another study found that the “at fault” dri­ver in 3,000 fatal motor vehi­cle crashes tested pos­i­tive for marijuana.

The con­tro­versy over legal­iz­ing mar­i­juana will prob­a­bly con­tinue for many years and chil­dren will cer­tainly ask ques­tions. Par­ents should talk about the harm­ful effects of mar­i­juana when they talk to their chil­dren about the risks of using tobacco and alco­hol. Edu­cate your­self and your chil­dren about the risks of mar­i­juana and help keep our kids safe.

Keep­ing Our Kids Safe is brought to you by the Delaware Police Depart­ment and School Resource Offi­cer Rod Glazer.

Posted by Rod Glazer on Nov 6 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.