I remember this one time when I was sitting on the sofa smoking a joint and eating a Snickers bar…

Hold on – I knew that’d get your attention – I’ll finish that story in a minute.

In this past Tuesday’s weekly newsletter, I highlighted a study from last year that showed that from 2000 through 2020 Poison Control call centers in the US saw a 245% increase in cases involving marijuana in 6 to 18-year-olds. 80% of these cases were 13-18-year-olds.

The study was based on intentional misuse and abuse exposures – so none of these cases were accidents – these kids knew they were eating weed-infused edibles and ate too much.

The authors of the study point out that cases began increasing in 2011 but really took off in 2017, which coincides with more states legalizing marijuana in one way or another.

This is Speaking of Teens, the podcast that helps parents who are struggling to find peace and connection with their teens. My name is Ann Coleman; I’m an attorney turned parent educator and a mom who has been there - and I’m on a mission to help you build a stronger relationship and decrease the conflict with your kid so you can help them grow into the young adult they’re meant to be.

Today, I want to talk a little about why edibles are so risky and a little about THC in general, what it actually does to their brain and their mental health and how do we talk to them about it all.

First just to give you a 30-second overview on the laws and general attitude in the US - As of today, although the federal government still classifies marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug (meaning is has no accepted medical use and has a high potential for abuse - the same as heroin by the way) only 3 states in the country have not legalized marijuana in any way, shape or form. You know if you live there, Idaho, Kansas, and Nebraska.

But to give you a feel for how accepted marijuana is in this country, according to a  CDC survey from 2021, 57% of respondents said they’d support a total ban on all tobacco products in the country, but 59% of respondents said they supported legalization of marijuana for all purposes.

The federal government’s stance on whether they would enforce the federal law has sort of ping ponged back and forth depending on who’s in the oval office, but they basically have taken a hands-off approach and it’s totally a political thing as to why it hasn’t been legalized at the federal level.

 

But one of the main things these state laws have done is to make marijuana seem much more acceptable to young people. “If it’s legal, it can’t be bad for you.” AS a matter of fact, according to the CDC a good 37% of high school students in the US have used marijuana and I would venture a bet that the number is actually much higher because according to drugabuse.gov, 45% of adolescents say they’ve used by age 18.

The legality issue does loom large also because it simply means there’s more of it out there and available in general, which inevitably trickles down to underage users. As a matter of fact, a study from 2017 found that the longer marijuana had been legal in an area and the more dispensaries there were, the more likely teenagers were to have tried both vaping and edibles. And in states where they permit growing plants at home, the higher the likelihood and the younger they were to try edibles. Another study from about that same time showed that the advertising done regarding medical marijuana also had an impact on use among young people – the more they were exposed to advertising the more likely they were to have a positive attitude about using, the more likely they were to use and the more likely they were to experience negative consequences of using. So seeing billboards and dispensary signs, TV and radio ads, etc. does really increase the problem for young people.

But, as the Poison Control study points out, of all the different ways to consume cannabis, edibles are by far more likely to be a problem. First of all, no one can tell by looking or even smelling a brownie, a gummy bear, or whatever, if it has weed in it or not. Kids can take them to school and eat them at lunch and no one would know. As a matter of fact, there have been tons of instances where kids are popping gummies in the school bathroom. They can take them anywhere and never risk being found out because the look and smell legit.

This is also a reason kids feel more comfortable with edibles. It doesn’t seem as “bad” or as “nasty” or “drug-like” as smoking it out of a bong or dabbing it or smoking a blunt. They’re just eating a cute little yummy piece of candy. This also makes it more dangerous because kids CAN be tricked or mistakenly ingest edibles.

And eating and smoking it are two totally different things. When smoking weed you can feel the effects of it really quickly but with edibles (which are usually more potent anyway) it can take a while – anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the person and the strength of the THC, which has to really get into the digestive system to take effect. But kids who don’t realize this, or don’t have the patience to wait to see if it makes them high – they’ll think it just didn’t do anything, will take more of it and then all of a sudden an hour later, it hits them like a Mack Truck.

The packaging for these edibles, if they come from a dispensary, are not always accurate as to how much THC is in them and even if it is accurate, kids are generally going to have no idea what the label even means. I’ve been told that a tiny nibble of a gummy bear would be enough to make me high. And that’s the other thing, if you’re not a seasoned user of marijuana, it will effect you even more. People who’ve used for a while have built up a tolerance so that it won’t impact them in the same way. And if kids are looking at a cookie, for instance, you think, well, a cookie is eaten all at once – I mean 2 or 3 cookies might be acceptable, but when you’re talking about a cannabis cookie, they’re literally meant to be eaten by breaking it up into small bites and just having a tiny bite. And if people are making these things at home, or eating something someone else has made at home – all bets are off – there’s no way to know what strength or amount of cannabis is in there or even if it is cannabis or something else. And at least one study I found from 2016 that looked at Poison Control cases from Oregon and Alaska right after it was legalized, says that in adolescents, most of the use (whether ingested or inhaled) was from homemade or homegrown products, most of the cases were involving edibles, and in these adolescents the exposure was more likely to depress their central nervous system. In other words, they were extremely lethargic (on the other hand if they smoked to much they were more likely to be really amped up with major heart palpitations .

All of this adds up to mean that kids eating edibles can get out of control quickly – that’s why all the calls to Poison Control (many of which originated in the ER) – it’s frightening.

But, the good news is, according to the CDC, there have been no reported deaths due to cannabis use itself. Now people have gotten high and then been hurt or killed.

But people can certainly feel like they might die if they have too much. It can make them really anxious, confused, extremely lethargic, dizzy, increased heart rate and in some cases it could cause hallucinations, a panic attack, nausea and vomiting – and they can last for just a few minutes to hours and some research even says it can give you a weed hangover

New York Times columnist, Maureen Dowd, wrote about her experience of eating an innocent looking cannabis infused candy bar in a Denver hotel room. She said she nibbled on in, nothing happen, nibbled some more, went about her business of eating dinner, but then, she says, “I felt a scary shudder go through my body and brain. I barely made it from the desk to the bed, where I lay curled up in a hallucinatory state for the next eight hours.” She could move from the bed to even get a glass or water or turn off the lights. Quote – “As my paranoia deepened, I became convinced that I had died and no one was telling me.”

But here’s more good news – this wears off – people don’t really even need to go to the ER – unless they get dehydrated from throwing up or will just feel better being there – Or if they are experience any sort of auditory or visual hallucinations or signs of psychosis.

But if you’re around and this happens to your teen there are things you can do to help (and you can let them know how to help if this happens to someone they know):

Help them relax – loving touch, deep breathing, square breathing, grounding – go back to episode 19 and the parenting guide that goes along with it – you could do the same things you would do for anxiety and you could also use emotion coaching from episode 6 – listening, validating, letting them know that it will pass, that they’re not in trouble (because they shouldn’t be if this is the first time it’s happened, especially).

Drink plenty of liquids – especially if they’re throwing up. Even eat a little something if they can. The best thing they may be able to do is just simply sleep it off – sleep while it leaves your system.

Also avoid over stimulation – TV, loud noise, lots of people – get somewhere safe and quiet.

Okay – so here’s the story - I’ve probably smoked pot (that’s what I always called it, right?) fewer than 30 times in my life - all between the ages of 29 and maybe 32) And the only true panic attack I ever had was during that time, pre-kid days, I was smoking a joint and eating a snickers bar at the same time – I mean if you knew me, that would make total sense. It’s always about chocolate. But it hit me all at once and I was ready to go to the ER – I thought I was having a heart attack – I couldn’t breath, my chest was tight, I remember pacing outside on the deck in the cold night air thinking – this is it, I’m gonna’ die. My husband get me calmed down a little and pretty soon it passed. But that’s of course not a fun feeling and it could really freak a teenager out – especially if they thought they would get punished. Something to keep in mind

So, anyway, now you know much more about me than my own mother.

The problem is that teenagers have no clue what they’re ingesting – they have no way of really gauging the amount or really even the potency - but then so much also depends on whether they’re regular users, if they’re also drinking or doing something else, if they’re dealing with a mental health disorder.

You know, it’s much easier with alcohol. We know what effects certain amounts of different types of alcohol have on the body, depending on body size generally – and we have quantitative legal limits under the law and ways to measure whether someone is above that limit.

The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety studied the scientific data and it did not feel there should be any specific set legal limit for DWI – like if you have this much THC and you’re driving impaired under the law (like we do have for alcohol.) They said, (quote) “There is no concentration of [THC] that allows us to reliably predict that someone is impaired behind the wheel in the way that we can with alcohol.” Some states do have laws though that limit THC to 5 nanograms per milliliter of whole blood – so that’s via a blood test after someone is stopped.

But as the AAA pointed out that it’s impossible for people who use marijuana to know how much is entering their blood stream – which gets us right back to my point…adolescents don’t know how much they’re ingesting – ever - just like adults can’t really keep up with it.

So, What’s the deal with the teen brain and marijuana?

Undoubtedly, you’ve heard that the adolescent brain is especially vulnerable to not just marijuana use but any kind of drug use (we don’t even know the lasting effects of some medications on the developing brain). And we know the brain is still developing through around the mid-20s. Let me explain really quickly.

What the brain is doing during adolescence is the synapses that pass electrical and chemical messages between brain cells – they’re still being pruned and strengthened – if a kid does something on a regular basis, these neural pathways become stronger for that thing they’re doing, which means they become very adept at that thing.

If they don’t use certain neural pathways, for doing something on a regular basis, it will be much harder to learn that thing in the future as these synapses will be pruned away and lost.

And this process is the same for learning say, how to smoke weed, or learning a foreign language. Learn and practice during adolescence, you get better at it and this “talent” will stick around on into adulthood. But if you don’t learn, practice (for example, smoking weed or learning a language) during adolescence, it will be harder to do so after their brain has finished all this programming.

And on top of this pruning and strengthening process is that the adolescent reward system, the neural system that motivates and reinforces pleasurable experiences – it’s supercharged during adolescence. That means that during adolescence, cool things, fun experiences feel even more fun – more than they ever will in adulthood. And once they get a taste for it – whatever “it” is, the reward system then tell them they must do that again, and again, and again…and then other things don’t feel as rewarding as this thing they’re doing over and over, because they’re getting really good at it too – the synapses in their brain are strengthening and getting better at it, meaning they’re more likely to be good at it in adulthood. This is a shorthand version for why it’s so easy to become dependent during adolescence and the reason the majority of adult drug abusers began using in early adolescence. It’s also part of the reason most mental health disorders appear during adolescence.

In addition to the risk of dependance, is the risk of developing mental health disorders. A study from 2019 looked at 11 previous studies that included a total of over 23,000 adolescents, it found that using marijuana was associated with increased risk of developing depression and suicidality in young adulthood.

Researchers also found that even if adolescents stop using, they are still more likely to develop depression in adulthood. This could be because, in addition to the reward system I mentioned earlier, one of the other areas of the brain that’s really sensitive during adolescence– is the amygdala (it’s sort of the emotional center of the brain) – so researchers sort of figure that cannabis may somehow alter this area of the brain during development.

there has been meta-analysis research (meaning a study looking at lots of previous studies) showing a link between high levels of adult use of marijuana and the occurrence of psychotic disorders although no causation proven – only correlation. So, they do not know marijuana was the culprit but it does appear that those who are heavy users are more likely to have psychosis-related issues or schizophrenia. But not only do we really not know what “heavy use” means as all the different studies defined this differently, but we also don’t know for sure if it’s the heavy use of marijuana underlying this issue or is it more likely that people with another particular trait linked to psychosis are more likely to be heavy users of marijuana.

Another study that looked at patients with psychosis and found that daily users and those who used high-potency cannabis were at higher risk of early-onset of psychosis (in their 20s, generally.)

So, it appears that the more often one uses, the younger they use and the more potent products they use, the higher the risk – which should make us concerned about edibles.

So, how do we to talk to our kids about it all

Well, Lisa Damour, clinical psychologist, author and podcaster said in a recent New York Times article that you should acknowledge to your teen that you understand how marijuana doesn’t seem like a big deal when it’s legal and there are ads and dispensaries everywhere, but to remind them that many things that are legal are still dangerous; alcohol, tobacco, nicotine vapes, artificial sweetener…all legal but all unhealthy.

And as I mentioned earlier, it certainly appears that legalizing and advertising have had an impact on adolescent use. They’ll say it’s legal, everyone does it, it’s natural, it’s no big deal, those studies are total bull, I’m fine, nothing’s gonna’ happen.

Explain the issues with edibles and not knowing how much or what is in it and that it takes longer to hit you – and everything we discussed…

But one thing I’ve heard many experts say, including Damour, is that when you explain how these things impact their brain, it can really make a difference. They know they only have one brain, and they can’t mess it up. Explaining how different parts of the brain are still developing and are more sensitive to substances during adolescence and how it can be harder to stop – all the things I’ve mentioned – this may really make a difference to them. Let them know that using marijuana (whether they smoke it, eat it, vape it, whatever) that it can impact their brain, how they feel now and years from now, can affect their mental health and that you love them and don’t want anything to hurt their brain or get in the way of them being who they want to be.

They also need to understand how it can impact their central nervous system – their breathing, heart rate,  how they can panic or have any of the other symptoms we discussed.

The other thing Damour points out is to remind your teens that anytime there are a bunch of kids together using marijuana or drinking that things can get out of control in a hurry (just like it can when there are a bunch of adults together doing the same thing). And tell that it’s just always safer to be able to think clearly and make good decisions in the moment and you just can’t do that when you’re under the influence. Explain that people do things when they’re under the influence that they never would when sober because in that moment you just can’t think straight and can often barely know what’s going one, which is one way to get hurt – they could hurt themselves or even someone else (they could also be hurt by someone else.)

Damour says that pointing out the real facts  - what happens to their brain and body rather than some arbitrary moral or legal reasoning, that they’ll be mush more respective to your message.

Just remember all the things about best times and places to communicate, the car, on a walk, doing a chore side by side, late at night when they’re up still chillin’ - don’t give a lecture, no shaming, especially in they’re having a cannabis moment, remember your emotion coaching skills from episode 6 and just have lots of mini conversations – never big sit down “talks”

 

Okay - that’s it for Speaking of Teens today. I’m so glad to have you here and I hope you enjoyed the show – if you did, I’m sure you know a few other people who will also – so share it with them – I would really appreciate it.

You can find a link for our Facebook Group and our socials at the bottom of the episode description right there in your app.

Until next time, remember, a little change goes a long way.