News & Views
Troubling pot trends continue
National and local reports about adolescent marijuana use are not trending in a good direction -- and both suggest youth living in states where marijuana is legalized face higher risks associated with the drug's use. First, the local report: Arrests related to...
Pot most prevalent in adolescent suicides
Colorado has ranked consistently among states with the highest rates of suicide in the nation. A report issued this month by the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment examines this serious public health problem with a special emphasis on adolescent...
Study: brains on pot work differently
Chronic marijuana users have less gray matter in the orbital frontal cortex, a region of the brain that the Los Angeles Times accurately describes as "a key node in the brain's reward, motivation, decision-making and addictive behaviors network." The findings,...
Gallup: Pot support plummets in 2014
Support for marijuana legalization has plunged 12 percent since 2013, even among self-identified liberals, according to a new Gallup Poll released today. The poll showed support for marijuana legalization stands at 51 percent, and opposition is at 47 percent --...
Nation not going to pot yet
Tuesday was a mixed bag for marijuana -- and today showed approval of the drug's legalization has plummeted 12 percent in the last year. Earlier this week, voters in Alaska, Oregon and the District of Columbia approved recreational use of the drug, while voters in...
The brain on pot
An Oct. 29 report in the New York Times caught our attention. It is written by Abigail Sullivan Moore, co-author of The iConnected Parent: Staying Close to Your Kids in College (and Beyond) While Letting Them Grow Up. The bottom line: "Concerns over (marijuana's)...
In Hines’ sight: suicide prevention
It was his tenth wedding anniversary, but Kevin Hines insisted on making just one more stop before heading home to San Francisco to celebrate with his wife. "We've got to keep working to get the messages of suicide prevention out there," he said Oct. 22 in Loveland,...
Death in Ferguson and THC
We have removed the original blog post that was here discussing 18-year-old Michael Brown and marijuana. The article and our intentions were misstated and mischaracterized. In his remarks about the tragic shooting of Michael Brown, President Obama said it best: “Of...
Colorado high school getting higher
As the small, Colorado town of Manitou Springs gears up for a city council vote that will determine whether marijuana stores can continue to operate within its limits, a physician there is reporting troubling numbers out of Manitou Springs High School. After reviewing...
Marijuana use going up
To understand marijuana and the impact of its legalization, focus like a laser on the data on which everyone bases their interpretations and explanations. News reports often don't square with the data. Case in point: this article appearing in The Washington Post about...
Read the book
Clearing the Haze is a guide designed to help parents determine whether their child may have a substance problem and, if so, how to begin to address it. This book includes the voices and insight of experts in substance abuse counseling, young people in recovery, and parents who have lived the nightmare of adolescent addiction.