Saving Our Youth from the Harms of THC
By Laura Stack
I survived it. The worst day of my life was November 21, 2019 at 1:03 AM, when the coroner told my husband and me our son had died by suicide a few hours ago, on November 20. In the immediate days following, I alternated between screaming, sobbing, and being unable to talk to anyone other than my immediate family.… Read the rest
I have a 17 year old who is struggling with marijuana/THC/vapes …. everything you mentioned. We did send our child to wilderness therapy and from there to a therapeutic boarding school. Eleven months later our child came home and is back to using.… Read the rest
Our 18 year old son walked in the front door. We were surprised to see him. Our son always worked on Monday nights from 5:00-9:00 pm. I asked him, “What are you doing home? It’s only 7:00.” His response was, “I don’t know.”… Read the rest
By Laura Stack
At Johnny’s Ambassadors, we educate parents and teens about the dangers of today’s high-THC marijuana on adolescent brain development, mental illness, and suicide. Recently, Johnny’s Ambassadors has been asked about our usage of the term “marijuana” versus “cannabis.”… Read the rest
Guest post by Heidi Anderson-Swan
Two states, Colorado and Washington, have pending bills to cap the THC concentrates at 15% and 30%, respectively. I applaud these efforts because their success will lower the rates of psychosis. However, it’s important to understand marijuana use is still an environmental risk factor for schizophrenia, even when the THC potencies are between merely 2-8%. … Read the rest
By Dr. Bomi Joseph, guest contributor
Thousands of years ago, many common fruits and flowers had a dramatically different appearance. Wild peaches were the size of acorns, berries were tiny and guarded by sharp thorns, and sugarcane looked more like grass than the woody, thick stalks that developed over centuries of selective breeding.… Read the rest
As I sit here in my cell and reflect on my teenage years, I think back to how weed was the norm in high school. I would literally smoke every single day, cut class to smoke, and miss family events to smoke.… Read the rest
By Laura Stack
One of the least publicized but arguably most damaging cannabis-induced physical disorders, as defined by the Diagnostics and Statistics Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (a.k.a. DSM-5), is pregnancy complications. Unfortunately, many expectant mothers are either deliberately misled or simply ignorant about how marijuana can harm their developing babies.… Read the rest
By Laura Stack
With thanks to Ed Wood for his input on this article
Driving while high on marijuana is a serious problem among American youths; legalization of marijuana makes it worse and more difficult to police. Curiously, there’s no gender gap involved, as there often is with other aspects of drug use; as of 2017, about the same number of boys and girls comprise the roughly 13% of teens who admitted to driving stoned in the past month.… Read the rest
By Laura Stack
Once upon a time, Big Tobacco used all kinds of misdirection, outright lies, and ads targeting young people to hook its target audience. Tobacco executives claimed tobacco wasn’t addictive well until the mid-1990s, and for a while even pretended it was good for you.… Read the rest