Episode Description: In this episode of the Curious About Cannabis Podcast we wrap up our three-part series on Cannabis safety and harm reduction by exploring the question, "Is Cannabis Safe?". First we talk about adolescent Cannabis use before discussing ways in which Cannabis users can minimize or eliminate many of the risks associated with Cannabis. Make sure you listen to episodes 1 and 2 prior to listening to this episode!

 

Episode Transcript:
#03 Is Cannabis Safe? Part Three: Adolescent Cannabis Use and Harm Reduction
You’re listening to the Curious About Cannabis Podcast.

[Reefer Madness Clip]

[Shutter]

Hey everybody, this is Jason Wilson with the Curious About Cannabis podcast, thanks so much for tuning in once again. Over the last two episodes we have been exploring the topic of Cannabis safety and harm reduction. We explored the toxicity of some of the major chemical constituents of Cannabis resins, how Cannabis can interact with medications, and contaminants that could be found in Cannabis products. Now, for this third and final part of this series, we are focusing on the topics of teen Cannabis use before diving into some of the ways that Cannabis users can minimize the potential risks associated with Cannabis use.

So here we go, the third and final part of our series where we explore the question: “Is Cannabis Safe?”

[INTRO MUSIC]

What about adolescent Cannabis use?

What are the risks of exposing children to Cannabis at an early age? As you might imagine, this is a very complicated question. For this episode we are going to ignore the topics of Cannabis use during pregnancy, while breastfeeding, or medical Cannabis use in children. We’ll explore those topics in other episodes. For this episode, we are going to focus on looking at the health risks of adolescent Cannabis use during the teenage years.

The topic of adolescent Cannabis use is a complicated and sensitive topic. Kids today have become very wary of drug education of any kind, primarily because kids have been exposed to tales of exaggerated harms or outright lies about drug use for decades as part of prohibition and abstinence-based drug education programs.[1] [2]

[MATT VOGEL SEGMENT]

This is Matt Vogel. Matt is a health and wellness educator that works with high school and college students to teach about health, substance use, and harm reduction strategies.

[MATT VOGEL SEGMENT]

Regarding Cannabis, kids have been told that it will kill brain cells, lead to schizophrenia or other mental health issues, make them lazy or stupid, or cause them to move on to other drugs like cocaine or heroin.

It should first be pointed out that there are big differences between acute or occasional Cannabis use and chronic Cannabis use. In general, acute Cannabis use is pretty safe, physiologically, with the biggest risks being risks of motor discoordination, which is why it is not a good idea to drive after using THC-rich Cannabis, memory disruption, and psychological distress.[3] However, most of the major risks that adolescents learn about Cannabis are associated with chronic, or repeated, Cannabis use.

While chronic Cannabis use can alter the way the brain functions[4] [5] [6], and we need to understand the consequences of that more, to say that it kills brain cells is dishonest. Cannabis can make some parts of the brain less active while making other parts of the brain more active.[7] In fact, in some cases Cannabis can actually encourage new brain cells to grow in a process called neurogenesis...