The real youth drug crisis is marijuana
Despite America's often-toxic politics, our legislators can still come together and fight the good fight: Look at the Youth Substance Use Prevention and Awareness Act, a new bipartisan Senate bill much needed in the battle to keep drugs away from kids.
And what drugs are kids consuming today? It may come as a surprise, but today's youth are more likely to become addicted to ultra-high-potency marijuana than even alcohol. In an era of mass marijuana legalization, normalization and acceptance, it's the elephant in the room consuming the next generation.
Marijuana consumption jumped among 12-17-year-olds from 3.4 million users in 2020 to 3.8 million in 2023. It is the drug most used by that age group. And these kids are not using yesterday's weed. The market has been flooded with dangerously high-potency THC products often disguised in colorful packaging and sold in forms that look like candy.
That's why the bill, introduced in May by Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.), is so crucial. Yes, it does not specifically focus on preventing kids from using marijuana. But the approach it takes will nonetheless empower people fighting that battle.
The bill would build out a Justice Department program to help state and local governments battle the rising tide of illicit drug use among the young by expanding grants to fund fact- and evidence-based public service announcements at the local and state level — ads aimed at stopping the next generation of users before they start.
The legislation as written takes a hard-headed approach to delivering results, baking in reporting requirements on ad effectiveness, the research driving each PSA and the ways in which the problems on the ground in the relevant market inform the ads.
Evidence-based policy backed up with public accountability is a win for everyone. And a quick spin through only the recent bad news about marijuana and the health risks it poses to kids will outline just what America needs to prevent.
A May study from a program of the Public Health Institute, which looked at nearly 100,000 adolescents, revealed that kids living in cities and counties where marijuana storefronts and/or delivery are banned were much less likely to have had a recent diagnosis of a psychotic disorder than kids who lived closer to them.
Data from European researchers published in March suggests marijuana drives up the risk of schizophrenia and psychosis, and that this elevated risk is doubled for teens.
The prevalence of youth-friendly delivery systems makes prevention pushes all the more urgent. In April, Canadian researchers published a study showing that provinces where edibles and extracts were legalized saw a 26 percent increase in overall teen marijuana use.
These are only the latest thuds in an endless drumbeat around the physical and mental risks marijuana carries, risks that kids above all need to know about. They provide an abundance of material for the PSAs the bill would help launch and show how specious the claims by advocates that drug use among kids today is harmless.
The opposite is true — there were nearly 900,000 marijuana-related emergency room visits in 2023, more than there were for opioids.
So it's imperative that Congress pass this bill and President Trump sign it. The bill is laudable and important, especially given the avalanche of counter-messaging on 'safe' drug use (some of which, horrifyingly, comes from taxpayer-sponsored PSAs in places like New York City).
The way forward requires more drug use PSAs that take the ad fight national. A strong, youth-focused national campaign that centers the terrible harms marijuana does would help keep the issue top of mind for kids everywhere (and could make it a bigger issue for their parents, come national elections).
The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy should relaunch a national prevention campaign along the lines of the defunct, powerful teen-targeted federal communications push from the 90s.
But ad campaigns, no matter how brilliant and effective, can't reach every vulnerable adolescent and young adult.
For people who slip through the prevention cracks, Washington must make sure that legal marijuana is not precision-engineered to max out psychoactive delivery with every hit, bite or sip.
It is time to hold the industry accountable and exercise the existing power of the FDA to take products off the shelves. So, kudos to the senators for taking this important step.
Now it's time for their colleagues and the U.S. House to get on board.
Kevin Sabet is the founder of Smart Approaches to Marijuana.
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