Marijuana has been legal for California adults for years. But as students head back to school, law enforcement officials in Fresno County say they’re increasingly concerned about how often cannabis is ending up in the hands of young people.
National data from *Monitoring the Future* shows more than 7 percent of eighth graders reported using marijuana. That figure rises to more than 15 percent among 10th graders and about 25 percent among 12th graders.
Clovis Police say that while conversations about marijuana may have declined since legalization, the problem of youth use has not. CPD is holding a screening August 28th to raise awareness and are urging parents to attend.
“We do have hearings quite often here with our juvenile hearing officers in the Clovis Police Department Youth Services Division,” said Armando Negrete. “A very high majority of them were seeing issues with substance use disorders and primarily with THC or marijuana use.”
A Clovis police drug education officer says marijuana use at a young age can affect brain development. Officials are also concerned about vaping products and marijuana being mixed with other drugs, potentially increasing the risk of addiction and overdose.
Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp says there is a troubling connection between marijuana use and fentanyl exposure among local teens.
“In Fresno County there has not been one case where a teenager has overdosed on fentanyl that they didn’t start smoking marijuana,” Smittcamp said.
Smittcamp also points to the increasing potency of THC products compared with marijuana in previous decades.
She says newer products can also be difficult for parents to recognize.
“Sometimes they look like a thumb drive on a computer. Sometimes they actually look like a pen,” Smittcamp said. “And for parents who don’t know what they look like, and even for parents who do, they’re very easy to conceal.”
Smittcamp says California law provides limited penalties for adults who sell marijuana to minors, which she believes contributes to how easily young people can obtain the drug.
“If we do find out that people are selling to minors, [they are] subject to a misdemeanor, which in the state of California today, there’s almost no penalty at all,” she said.
With children returning to school, both Smittcamp and Negrete are urging parents to have open conversations with their kids about marijuana and other drugs.
“Children’s brains don’t stop developing until they’re 25 years old,” Smittcamp said. “And so an influx of regular use of marijuana can definitely be damaging to the child.”
Clovis Police are also asking the community to get involved. The department plans to host a free screening of *THC, Inc.*, a documentary examining the evolution of marijuana and THC products over the past two to three decades.
“We want to partner with the community, first of all, to show this screening,” Negrete said. “It’s a free screening.”