Marijuana laws must put children first

In a committee room packed with marijuana industry lobbyists, we watched as the task force empowered to create a regulatory structure ranked its priorities. Protecting children came in dead last.

In the decade since then, we have built a national nonprofit organization, One Chance to Grow Up, focused on limiting the harm to children from marijuana commercialization. As the movement to liberalize U.S. marijuana laws grows, too often the health of children remains an afterthought in policy discussions.

Thirty-six states and Washington, D.C., have approved medical marijuana sales in some form. Eighteen states plus D.C. have approved recreational marijuana.

Congressional advocates continue to push different angles to boost the marijuana industry and loosen restrictions. The latest attempt would tack onto defense authorization legislation the SAFE Banking Act, which aims to open access to the nation’s financial markets for marijuana companies.

We’ve never opposed legalizing the responsible use of marijuana by adults. Frankly, it wouldn’t matter if we did. Surveys show the public supports this trend. States are acting, and pressure is growing on Congress.

But we insist that these laws must protect children, whose growing brains are affected by marijuana and harmed by radically new, ultrapotent marijuana products.

This year, the Colorado Legislature passed and Gov. Jared Polis signed a new law that closed a medical marijuana loophole that gave 18-20-year-olds access to large quantities of highly potent products. It also mandated a systematic review of the health impacts of these ultrapotent products and funded a major public education campaign based on those findings.

It is a good start, and we hope it serves as a model for the rest of the nation.

In Colorado, mass commercialization has exceeded anything we could have imagined when we first met at the statehouse. Colorado now has more than 1,000 marijuana stores that sell concentrated products with nearly pure THC, marijuana’s mind-altering chemical.

Dabbing — the consumption of ultraconcentrated THC resin after heating it — has become an epidemic among Colorado youth. Colorado addiction psychiatrist Dr. Libby Stuyt says comparing yesterday’s marijuana plant to the extreme THC products now available is like comparing the coca leaf to crack cocaine.

While the percentage of Colorado teenagers who use marijuana at least once a month has remained roughly stable, state surveys show many more teenagers are using daily and engaging in abusive consumption behaviors such as dabbing.

Colorado’s high-THC reality could be the future for the rest of the nation. We’ve learned important lessons that should inform efforts to protect U.S. children. First, the words “marijuana” and “cannabis” do not adequately describe today’s new high-THC products, which include children-friendly, easily concealable forms such as dissolvable powders, candies, syrups, vapes, and inhalers.

Second, rising THC potencies threaten growing brains, which continue developing into the mid-20s. Hospital emergency departments are seeing more patients in crisis from these extreme THC products. THC is the No. 1 substance found in Colorado teenagers who die by suicide. And research shows that high amounts of THC can lead to addiction, psychosis, and depression.

The past war on drugs unfairly targeted communities of color. Yet marijuana mass commercialization disproportionately hurts young people in neighborhoods of color, creating a new inequity.

National steps to limit tobacco flavors, which hook children with sweet and fruity flavors, should encompass THC products as well. Marijuana legalization legislation proposed by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer would ban flavored THC vape products.

Our nation does best when it balances competing priorities. One can support responsible marijuana use by adults and research into potential medical benefits while also taking bold steps to keep youth safe from products that threaten their futures. America’s children are counting on us to get this right.

Diane Carlson and Henny Lasley are co-founders of One Chance to Grow Up (onechancetogrowup.org).