WHAT: Adolescent marijuana vaping is at an all-time high. From 2018 to 2019 marijuana vaping was ranked among the largest single-year increase ever observed by Monitoring the Future. In San Diego County, marijuana remains the primary drug of choice for adolescents (CCR, 2020). This is concerning because recent studies have shown that marijuana has serious long-term negative impacts on youth brain development and mental health.
Laura Stack, a mother in Colorado, feels the pain of that impact every day. Last November 2019, her son Johnny died by suicide at the age of 19 after suffering from mental illness and substance use of highly potent THC.
Johnny’s mother is sharing both her grief of losing her son, and the latest research on marijuana’s impacts on teens in the hopes of saving others: “We are a normal suburban family and did normal family things. He had a happy life, a 4.0 GPA with a scholarship to college, and a family who loved him very much. Unfortunately, we live in Colorado, which was the first state to legalize marijuana in 2014, when Johnny was 14 years old,” she shares on the website.
Based in Colorado, Johnny’s Ambassadors is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to educate parents and teens about the dangers of today’s high-potent THC marijuana on the developing adolescent mind (https://johnnysambassadors.org/). In recognition of Suicide Prevention Month this September, and in support of Johnny’s Ambassadors, the North Coastal Prevention Coalition (NCPC) is encouraging all to walk to help raise awareness of the impacts of youth substance use on mental illness and suicide.
Marijuana use directly affects the brain — specifically the parts of the brain responsible for memory, learning, attention, decision making, coordination, emotions and, reaction time. Developing brains, like those in babies, children and, teens are especially susceptible to the adverse effects of marijuana (https://www.cdc.gov/marijuana/fact-sheets.htm#2)
Marijuana use has been linked to a range of mental health problems in teens such as depression or anxiety. Psychosis has also been seen in teens at higher risk like those with a family history. (https://www.cdc.gov/marijuana/factsheets/teens.htm)
Students who smoke marijuana may get lower grades and may be more likely to drop out of high school than their peers who do not use (https://www.cdc.gov/marijuana/factsheets/teens.htm).
If teens do not use any one substance (alcohol, cigarettes or marijuana), they are much less likely to use the other two or to use other illegal drugs (https://onechoiceprevention.org/).
Substance abuse and problematic patterns of substance use among youth can lead to problems at school, cause or aggravate physical and mental health-related issues, promote poor peer relationships, cause motor-vehicle accidents, and place stress on the family. (https://youth.gov/youth-topics/substance-abuse).
San Diego County suicide rate in 2019 decreased 7.9% from 13.9 to 12.8 per 100,000 population, the lowest rate since 2011. (https://www.sdchip.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/FINAL_SPC-Report-to-the-Community-2020.pdf).
The percentage of suicide crisis calls, as opposed to calls about other mental health issues, to the County’s Access and Crisis Line saw an increase from 47.6% in 2018 to 55.05% in 2019. (https://www.sdchip.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/FINAL_SPC-Report-to-the-Community-2020.pdf).
San Marcos Prevention Coalition
North Coastal Prevention Coalition
