By Laura Stack
Hello Army of the Engaged! For 710 Day on Friday, I’m looking for ten partners who will help Johnny’s Ambassadors with a Facebook fundraiser (read below if you don’t know about 710 Day—we are working to educate others and save lives!). If we could each raise $250 x 10 people, we could raise close to $2500! How does it work? On Friday, you would go to https://www.facebook.com/fund/johnnysambassadors/ and follow the prompts. Copy/paste this text below into your fundraising message. But not until Friday! Will you help?
Today is 710 Day, so I’m helping the nonprofit Johnny’s Ambassadors raise funds to build their online e-learning curriculum for teen marijuana education! What, you don’t know what 710 Day is? Ask your teens, and make sure you know where they are at 7:10 PM. Today, July 10, is Dab Day, because turned upside down, the digits 710 spell “OIL.” Why? Because participants are high on cannabis oil, which is one type of high-potency marijuana. While 420 Day celebrates marijuana in general, 710 Day celebrates the high-potency extracts called “dabs.” At 7:10 PM, users will celebrate the holiday with a dab.
What is a dab? Dabbing involves extracting the THC (the part that gets you high) from the cannabis plant. Users place a small amount of this concentrate (shatter, Butane Hash Oil, hash, wax, budder, honey, etc.) into a heating element called a dab rig or vape pen and breath in the cloud of cannabinoids produced as the concentrate sizzles.
Ummm…okay…what is the point of dabbing? Dabbing is a fast way to get very high, because it’s extremely potent, often times over 90% THC content (a chemical, not a plant). It only takes a second or two, and in that time a substantial amount of THC can be inhaled. The problem? If teens dab illegally, their brains are still forming, and marijuana has been proven to cause psychosis, mental illness, and increased suicidal ideation. Consider these facts:
17% of those who began their use in adolescence become addicted, and up to about 50% of those who become daily users end up with addiction: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4827335/pdf/nihms762992.pdf
The risk of persisting marijuana use is greater if the product is high in THC concentration: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6991277/
To understand the how many teens this may affect, in 2019, 22% were using at least monthly by the time they reached 12th grade:
http://www.monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/monographs/mtf-vol1_2019.pdf
The consensus is that use of marijuana with a THC content over 10% increases the risk of a psychotic disorder by 4 to 5-fold:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4988731/
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(14)00117-5/fulltext
Yes, it’s everywhere, even where marijuana isn’t legal. Yes, your teens can get it. These products can all be ordered online quite easily. Will they know what it is at that next party?
Johnny’s Ambassadors mission is to educate parents and teens about the dangers of this high-THC marijuana on the developing adolescent mind. Their goal is to have 100s of 1000s of teen take their online course they are creating, provided free, thanks to our partners. There are ten of us each working to raise $250, so we can collectively donate $2500 for the cause. All donations are 100% tax deductible to this 501c3 charity. If you are a parent or grandparent with teens, please help us prevent youth substance abuse, mental illness, and suicide.
Thank you!