The Berrien County Health Department has launched a new campaign to spread awareness about the dangers of teen marijuana use.
Prevention supervisor Lisa Peeples-Hurst tells us the department’s surveys have found more than one in seven Berrien County teens have used marijuana in the past 30 days.
It’s not always smoking marijuana. Peeples-Hurst says many are vaping the substance. How does that work?
“The cartridges that are inside of an electronic vape device can be manipulated so that marijuana could be added, and it’s called dabbing, if you will,” Peeples-Hurst said. “Dabbing can occur when you put a marijuana resin on any heating source.”
Peeples-Hurst says the department’s intervention program, Teen Intervene, surveys teens who have been referred to it by the courts and finds a surprising number use marijuana this way. Is it harder to detect marijuana when it’s been vaped?
“There still is that very distinct smell of marijuana. However, it’s not as strong because you’re not necessarily burning the plant, the cannabis plant, you’re actually burning a resin of that plant. It is still very distinctive, just not as strong.”
Peeples-Hurst notes many schools do now have technology in place that can detect the use of a vape.
Meanwhile, Peeples-Hurst says the health department and the Voice Change Hope Alliance will spend the summer and fall reaching out to those age 12 to 20 about the dangers of marijuana, which include impaired brain development. She says people are using substances at a younger and younger age, with many beginning at the age of 11.
As for the use of fentanyl among young people — Peeples-Hurst says that’s fortunately not very common in Southwest Michigan with the top two substances among teens remaining alcohol and marijuana.
