Vaping cannabis a concern for youth
Reflecting on drug trends through her 26 years working in juvenile corrective services in Butler County, deputy director Susan Stover said that as heroin decreased in prevalence among youth, marijuana largely remained teens’ primary drug of choice. In the past few years, she said, vaping has widened its accessibility.
Stover, who manages departmental staff of the juvenile corrective services in the Butler County Government Center on West Diamond Street and keeps an eye on current drug trends and state policies, said vaping devices allow people — including teens — to be more discreet with marijuana use.
According to drug tests conducted in 2023 by the county juvenile services, marijuana was the highest used substance by youth, followed by cocaine and benzodiazepines.
One study published in 2022 in JAMA Pediatrics found that teen vaping of marijuana doubled between 2013 and 2020.
“Over the years, there’s new ways to use (marijuana),” Stover said. “Initially, you had loose marijuana, and you either smoked a joint or put it in a pipe.”
“Now, we have the use of these vaping devices,” she said.
Cannabis vape cartridges are designed to heat concentrated cannabis extract, creating a vapor that is inhaled.
Rather than smoking marijuana, vaping it can deliver higher amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, resulting in a more intense high, according to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. The study also found that for first-time or infrequent users, vaping marijuana is more likely to cause anxiety or paranoia than smoking the substance at the same dose.
“(Vapes) are probably what you’re seeing the most,” Stover said. “I mean, you see people vaping lots of different things, like cotton-candy flavored. So it’s tough. Are they smoking (nicotine)? Or are they smoking (cannabis)? Unless you test it, you’re not necessarily going to know.”
She also noted that the prevalence of edibles, marijuana wax and the availability of synthetic marijuana, which can be legally bought in virtually any smoke shop, makes the drug easier to access for teens.
“As a parent, it terrifies me,” she said.
The decriminalization of marijuana and availability of dispensaries also plays a role in shaping public perception of marijuana among youth, who may view it as “less severe,” Stover said.
“In other places, (marijuana) has been decriminalized, but here in Pennsylvania, you have people with medical marijuana cards, you have dispensaries and so forth, but it’s not legal for recreational use,” she said.
“That makes it difficult to enforce, makes it difficult whenever there’s, you know, similar products on the market that they can buy legally,” Stover said. “It’s tough. It’s still affecting (youth). It’s still impacting them. It’s still impairing them.”
When it comes to cases of teens using illicit substances, Stover said that some incidents that are reported occur in schools. Many are marijuana related, she said.
According to Frankie Szymanski, therapist at Glade Run Lutheran Center’s Acute Partial Hospitalization program for children and teens ages 12 to 18, vaping cannabis can counteract medication for psychiatric conditions, and can also be a coping mechanism for anxiety or depression, while in some cases exacerbating those same symptoms.
“It’s a way for them to avoid their struggles and what they’re going through, a way to just not have to deal with what’s right in front of them,” Szymanski said.
“I like to get their perception of why they are doing it,” Szymanski said. “What do you get out of it? A lot of them will answer that it’s just their way of coping, their way of not trying to deal with what’s going on in life.”
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