Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (https://jjie.org/tag/marijuana/page/2/)
Rachel Perdue, 16, Pebblebrook High School
I got caught using marijuana three years ago and have now been clean for seven months. For my New Year’s resolution, I want to lose 10 pounds, and stay sober, of course. To do that, I’m going to have to stay busy. I’m going to spend time practicing my cello, and keeping my grades up and spend time with my boyfriend, who is very supportive and a good influence. “Plus, my mom and I have a lot of fun together.
Nick McCullough, 17, Pope High School
“I have a good head on my shoulders and for starters, I won’t do what I normally would do on New Years, which is smoke weed. I want to go to college and I have my mind set on that now. I am the captain of my hockey team and pretty much always have been. I like to be a leader instead of having a lot of people looking over me. I’m not crazy about being under people’s rule, so even this (drug court) is a big deal for me.
Dylan Hamilton, 15, Pope High School
“I started smoking marijuana two years ago. I was skipping a lot of school, hanging with the wrong crowd, living the wrong life. This coming year, I just want to be clean and able to relax and do my best in school so I can start preparing for college. I’m a grade behind where I should be and I’m trying to make that up now. “There were some wasted years, for sure.
At the end of October, three Louisiana State University football players were suspended for one game after testing positive for synthetic marijuana. This week, three University of Georgia running backs were suspended for one game when they tested positive for marijuana use. While the NCAA publishes an annual list of banned substances, each school may enforce that ban differently. In the wake of the LSU and UGA suspensions, CBS Sports surveyed nearly 70 public NCAA Division I schools about what their specific policies are. According to the CBS story, Georgia suspends players for 10 percent of games on the first positive test and 50 percent on the second positive.
Parents, picture this: your kid is opening a mostly green bag of candy. Nothing unusual, especially for this time of year, so you probably think nothing of it. Then, they take out a lollipop, and you take a second look: It’s shaped like a marijuana leaf. How would you react? City leaders, anti-drug activists and parents across the country aren’t sweet on this new candy.
A Colorado commission reviewed their DUI and marijuana policies and will deliver the results to the Drug Policy Taskforce and the Colorado Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice.
“You got any weed?” is how William “Trash” Hansen introduced himself on a hot spring day in the Little 5 Points neighborhood of Atlanta. The heels of his socks peeked through the disintegrated soles of his steel-toed boots as he walked the strip in search of the drug. If you passed him on the street you may have thought twice before striking up a conversation. If the soot- drenched, patch- woven outfit didn’t give you pause, the blatant drug references and casual cat-calls may have. Sporadically he’d push back the small puff of dreadlocked hair sprouting from the crown of his head or run his arm across his forehead to wipe away sweat.
For those at risk, marijuana use hastens the onset of schizophrenia, according to a new study. Researchers found those with a genetic predisposition for psychosis would begin to experience symptoms an average of 2.7 years earlier if they smoked marijuana, and that can mean a greater disruption to their life. “We’ve known for many years that people who develop schizophrenia earlier have a number of poorer outcomes,” Michael Compton, co-author of the report, told the magazine Miller-McCune. Schizophrenia typically begins between the ages of 18 and 28. According to the researchers, developing symptoms earlier makes it harder for schizophrenics to succeed later in life because it impacts their ability to graduate high school or finish college. Even though the disease is genetic 80 to 85 percent of the time, many at risk have no family members who suffer from schizophrenia.
More than half of teens arrested in San Diego County, CA last year tested positive for at least one drug, and 94 percent admitted using drugs or alcohol at some point, according to research from the San Diego Association of Governments. Marijuana was the most common drug, with 51 percent testing positive at the time of arrest. 47 percent of these kids said their parents abused alcohol or drugs, too. Half said a parent had been previously arrested and jailed. Read more in the San Diego Union-Tribune
Adolescents with ADHD are more likely to use marijuana, according to the Royal Statistical Society in London. Rising high school freshmen and sophomores with ADHD who smoke weed infrequently may begin to increase their dependence on it. The report is called, Latent Transition Models with Latent Class Predictors: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Subtypes and High School Marijuana Use.