Pubdate: Sun, 23 Apr 2006 Source: Des Moines Register (IA) Copyright: 2006 The Des Moines Register. Contact: http://desmoinesregister.com/index.html Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/123 Author: Bonnie Harris, Staff Writer Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth) THE MORE WICKED WEED The drug of choice among children in Iowa isn't what most parents might expect, or even fear. It isn't alcohol. Methamphetamine? Not even close. Marijuana - more than all other drugs combined, including alcohol - is what juveniles want most. It is the state's No. 1 illicit drug problem among people of all ages, and is catching on among children as young as 11. Yet parents, many of whom think back to their own days of "casual" marijuana use, tend to be less concerned about their child's experimentation with a joint than a drink. They shouldn't be, medical and law enforcement authorities say. This is not your parents' pot. Today's marijuana is at least 10 times more potent than it was in the 1970s, according to Iowa's crime lab officials. The result is a stronger, longer-lasting high whose effects reach far beyond the so-called munchies and drowsiness caused by marijuana available decades ago. Today's pot can leave users in a stupor for hours, slurring their speech and precariously limiting certain body movements. Young users interviewed for this story said even one hit from a joint can have immobilizing effects. "You don't get all goofy and laugh at stuff or mess around," a 16-year-old from Marion County said. "You just sit there. You can look around and no one's talking, no one's moving. It can knock you on your ass." The reason: tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the main active chemical in marijuana. Under a microscope, it glistens on marijuana leaves like tiny crystal balls. More crystals mean stronger pot. At the Division of Criminal Investigation's crime lab in Ankeny, some magnified samples of marijuana resemble sparkling pieces of quartz more than a plant leaf. "I've never seen this kind of potency before," said Sandy Stoltenow, a crime lab supervisor who has studied marijuana in Iowa since the 1970s. "What's out there today is definitely not the same as what your father smoked. This is a whole new game." About 30 years ago, the level of THC commonly found in marijuana hovered around 2 percent, Stoltenow said. Today, thanks to more sophisticated growing techniques and elaborate greenhouses, marijuana is routinely found to have THC levels of 24 percent. Authorities say even higher levels of more than 30 percent have been found in some of the marijuana they've seized - forcing them to take another look at a drug that for years they had considered less of a problem than other, seemingly more dangerous ones. "Methamphetamine may be more addictive than marijuana, but we can't close our eyes to it anymore," said Marvin Van Haaften, the state's drug czar. "The purity of marijuana is skyrocketing. It is extremely potent. I don't think most people, especially parents, fully understand this. I don't think they fully understand what's out there and the threat it poses and what it can do." Dad can't say anything. I know he smoked it. Sara Lee, a juvenile substance abuse counselor in Story and Polk counties, knows exactly what marijuana can do. She has seen teenagers lose scholarships, drop out of school and attempt suicide because of the drug. She has seen parents deny their child's marijuana problem until a court orders drug treatment. She has seen desperate parents turn their child in to police. She has seen anger. Lots of it. "Once your kid has a drug problem, nothing's easy anymore," Lee said. "Everything becomes a battle. In some ways, marijuana is worse because kids think, 'My dad can't say anything to me because I know he smoked it when he was young.' I've seen it a million times. I have to stop them and say: 'Your dad didn't smoke the kind of marijuana you're smoking.' It's scary." Kristina Gilbert had no idea her son, now a senior in high school, was feeding a marijuana habit two years ago when she found the remains of a joint in his shirt pocket while doing laundry one day. A single mother of two teenagers, the former West Des Moines woman said she did what she thought any responsible parent would: She sat down her son and had "the drug talk." His answers seemed honest to her at the time, she said. She let it go. Six months later, her son, an honors student and athlete on track for a full scholarship, was arrested for possession of marijuana. Gilbert said it was only then that she learned her son had a serious problem and that he had begun using other drugs, including speed. She put him in drug counseling and moved her family to another county. Her son, whom she did not want identified and who has a different last name, is now drug-free and is "getting his life back," Gilbert said. "It happened so fast," she said. "I have really good kids, and I considered myself a good, attentive mom who knew what was going on. I knew nothing. I kick myself for being so stupid." Last year, 23 percent of Iowans of all ages being treated for substance abuse reported marijuana as their primary drug of choice, compared with 15 percent who were addicted to meth. Alcohol addiction topped the list, at nearly 56 percent. But among Iowa's juveniles, marijuana is the No. 1 drug of choice, with 52 percent of those seeking treatment citing marijuana abuse as their biggest problem. About 40 percent of the juvenile clients put alcohol at the top of their list, according to Iowa's Drug Control Strategy report. "What worries me most is they're using at a younger and younger age," said Ken Cheyne, director of pediatric education at Blank Children's Hospital in Des Moines. "We've seen sixth-graders, 11-year-olds, who are smoking marijuana. It's alarming. It's more prevalent than it ever was." Drug counselors say perceptions about marijuana, especially among parents, make matters worse. Because many parents smoked marijuana themselves at one time, they either downplay their children's experimentation with the drug or avoid the issue altogether for fear of being hypocritical. The problem, said drug prevention specialist David Wright, is that parents don't realize what their kids are up against with today's marijuana. "I see many parents who still view this as a rite of passage, like they know their kid is going to experiment with pot just like they'll experiment with cigarettes," said Wright, who works with the Ankeny Substance Abuse Project. "I'm telling you, it's absolutely not OK to think like that anymore. I'm pretty sure most of these parents would be shocked if they sampled some of the pot that's out there right now." Teenage and adult marijuana users interviewed in three counties described similar experiences with the drug. The marijuana for sale in Iowa varies in price based on quality, with "commercial-grade" bags of pot available for as little as $20 for an eighth of an ounce. The same amount of more potent forms of marijuana, with such names as "kind bud" or "BC Bud" (a reference to its supposed place of origin, the Canadian province of British Columbia), sells for $50 or more. "With BC Bud, I can take a hit, put the thing out and save it for later," said Terry Mitchell, a 53-year-old Dexter man who says he uses marijuana to ease back pain from degenerative disc disease. "With regular bud, it takes three or four hits, sometimes half a joint, to get the same result." In Marion County, a group of three teenage friends said they like to pool their money to buy an ounce of "the better stuff" for $400. They said they smoke it together after school, usually in the garage of a boy's home whose parents are still at work. Lately they have taken to experimenting with "blunts" - hollowed-out cigars stuffed with marijuana. The hit from those, they said, is more powerful than a regular joint's, and they can stay high for up to three hours or more. "It goes a long way," said one of the boys, whose older brother introduced him to marijuana when he was 14. "It doesn't take much." It's stories like that, concerning younger marijuana users, that trouble Dr. Dennis Weis, medical director of the Powell Chemical Dependency Center. He said only a small percent of his patients - all of whom are adults - are being treated strictly for marijuana abuse, although nearly all smoke the drug at least "episodically." But Weis said he is more concerned about how stronger marijuana will effect younger users. Treatment for marijuana abuse may not require detox, he said, but even the mildest form of the drug can produce a psychological dependence. "When I think of the naive user who doesn't have a chemical dependency problem experimenting with a form of marijuana that has such high levels of THC," Weis said, "I see trouble." Cheyne, the Blank doctor, said THC can also cripple a young person's development. He has seen young users who have such poor interpersonal coping skills that they are unable to handle simple social issues such as asking a girl on a date or carrying on a conversation at a party. "People who use marijuana aren't fully engaged," Cheyne said. "It's a motivational thing. They're not looking ahead, they're not living life at the regular speed. Marijuana affects a lot of things, learning included. I've found if you smoke marijuana, you don't really learn how to deal with issues you have to to become an adult." It's not the throw-away funny drug anymore. Iowa law enforcement officials seized nearly $10 million worth of marijuana last year. Packaged in tubes and stuffed in tires, or wrapped in blocks the size of a television set, the seized pot ends up at the state's crime lab in Ankeny. There, it is weighed and tested and sealed back up for court. Of all the 650 drug cases waiting at the lab now, 40 percent are for marijuana. Orville Berbano, a criminalist at the lab, has handled so much of the stuff that he can pick out the more potent forms without a microscope. While recently examining an 18-pound slab of marijuana that was packed together so tightly it required a tool to break up, Berbano picks out a small bunch and squeezes it between his thumb and forefinger. It is green and especially pungent, sticky and dense - telltale signs of a higher level of THC. "There's such a wide range" in potency, he said. "You really don't know what you're getting" when someone buys it on the street. Officials said methamphetamine steals more headlines in Iowa, and they agree that it is more addictive and dangerous than marijuana. But they also said marijuana continues to be the most-used illicit drug in Iowa, and the purer it becomes, the more habit-forming it can be. "On the one hand, you know that meth is more of a problem than marijuana," said Dale Woolery, an associate director of the Governor's Office of Drug Control Policy. "But then you have far, far more people using marijuana. They could become the next generation of meth users." Ankeny Police Chief Gary Mikulec said parents can no longer hide behind the perception that marijuana is a fairly harmless drug. "You do not want your kid messing around with this stuff," Mikulec said. "It's not the funny throw-away drug anymore. If you think it is, you are wrong. And you can't afford to be wrong with this." Iowa law enforcement authorities say that while more potent forms of marijuana have become a growing concern, methamphetamine continues to dominate their investigations. Yet that is precisely where much of the marijuana seized in Iowa is found: during meth raids or at clandestine labs around the state. Authorities stumble upon most of the rest, usually along Iowa's highways. Last year the Iowa State Patrol seized nearly 3,500 pounds of marijuana with an estimated street value of $7.5 million. During a routine traffic stop for speeding last month near Atlantic, troopers seized 210 pounds of the drug. Jim Saunders, a spokesman for the Iowa Department of Public Safety, said the drug is trucked to Iowa from places both known and nameless. Though elaborately packaged in everything from tires to door panels, it rarely escapes the nose of a drug dog, he said. "It's been the assumption in the general public that marijuana isn't much of a problem because we hear so much about meth," Saunders said. "But it's still out there. We've got truckloads at any given time to prove it." Officials with the Division of Narcotics Enforcement, who investigate mid-to upper-level drug trafficking in Iowa, shut down 66 outdoor marijuana grow operations last year. In 2004, they handled 23. "Marijuana cases do come up for us, and we may be seeing a few more lately," said Sean McCullough, the division's special agent in charge. "But for our agency, most of our cases still involve meth." Still, some city police departments have stepped up their drug-resistance programs to emphasize more the dangers of marijuana and alcohol. In Ankeny, officer Heather Kline works at the high school and both middle schools, where she said perceptions about the drug vary widely. "Students who are using think everybody's using, and that it's OK," she said. "Different parents consider different levels of use to be OK, too. I don't think anybody really realizes the true scope of the problem." Kline's observations are in line with recent studies by the National Institute on Drug Abuse that found the number of people who view marijuana as being harmful has decreased-just as the number of users has gone up. A survey of high school seniors in 2003, for example, showed that current marijuana use has increased by about 54 percent since 1991. The proportion of those seniors who consider regular use of marijuana to be harmful has dropped by 30 percent. "All we can do is talk," Kline said. "We have to keep talking, and hope that somewhere along the line some of it sinks in." [Sidebar] Effects Of THC On The Body The amount of THC in marijuana determines the drug's strength. Its short-term effects wear off with a few hours, but the drug can be detected in urine tests up to three days after use and traces of THC may be picked up in blood tests up to four weeks after use. Short-Term Effects Brain And Nervous System THC causes the brain to release dopamine, producing a feeling of euphoria. Sounds and colors may seem more intense. Time appears to pass more slowly. Parts of brain responsible for thirst and hunger are stimulated. Euphoria subsides, leaving user sleepy or depressed, sometimes fearful or anxious. Short-term memory, coordination and problem solving are affected. Circulatory And Respiratory System Effects of smoking are generally felt within a few minutes and peak in 10 to 30 minutes. Heart rate increases sharply. Bronchial passages relax and become enlarged. Blood vessels in the eyes expand, making them look bloodshot. Mouth and throat become dry. Long-Term Effects Brain And Nervous System Chronic use may hasten the age-related loss of neurons in the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for memory formation. Ability to learn and shift attention from one thing to another is impaired. Circulatory And Respiratory System Persistent use damages lungs and airways, making smokers susceptible to bronchitis, emphysema and bronchial asthma One marijuana joint contains the same amount of cancer-causing chemicals as five cigarettes. Reproductive System Regular use can delay the onset of puberty in young men and reduce sperm production. Regular use by women can disrupt monthly mentrual cycles and inhibit ovulation. Pregnant users run the increased risk of babies with low birth weight, health problems and developmental delays. Sources: National Institute on Drug Abuse, Department of Justice, Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement [Sidebar 2] Weed Loaded With Fast-Working Chemicals Marijuana plants contain hundreds of chemicals, about 60 of which fit into a category called cannabinoids. Tetrahydrocannabinol, THC, is the chemical most associated with marijuana's effects on the brain. Once smoked, THC and other chemicals enter the bloodstream and go to work almost immediately. Besides an initial reaction of relaxation or light-headedness, the user's eyes may dilate or become bloodshot. Later, feelings of paranoia or panic may be felt. More potent marijuana can cause hallucinations. The brain responds to THC in various ways, but short-term memory loss, a lack of coordination and distorted perceptions are among the most common effects. Persistent marijuana users are susceptible to the same health problems as tobacco smokers, including bronchitis, emphysema and bronchial asthma. Long-term use can increase the risk of damaging the lungs and reproductive organs. Groups advocating legalization of marijuana or its use for medicinal purposes say it is known to help cancer and AIDS patients and relieve pain associated with various other ailments. Eleven states allow marijuana to be grown and used for medical purposes; Iowa does not. Pot's short-term effects wear off within a few hours, but THC can be detected in urine tests up to three days after use. It accumulates in the tissues of the liver, lungs and other organs, so traces of THC can show up in some blood tests two to four weeks after use. Dr. Dennis Weis, medical director of the Powell Chemical Dependency Center, said while marijuana use typically isn't associated with violence, it can cause depression. Regular users who stop smoking pot can become irritable, anxious or angry, he said. "I don't believe they have a physiological addiction," Weis said of marijuana users. "But it does produce a psychological dependence. [Sidebar 3] Tips To Help Parents Talk To Kids About Pot TALK ABOUT IT: Drug treatment experts say parents should have pointed discussions with their children about marijuana, beginning in elementary school. Regular reminders and ongoing talks about drugs should continue throughout the child's middle school and high school years, even if parents think they've said all they need to say. LOOK FOR SIGNS: Drug prevention specialist David Wright and other experts encourage parents to be on the lookout for signs of drug use. Even a cigarette could be a red flag, they said, because children often experiment first with tobacco, then alcohol, followed by marijuana. "Some kids manage to get through that experimentation with no lasting problems," Wright said. "But others don't, and there's no way of knowing ahead of time which group your kid will fall in." Warning signs your child is using marijuana A change in the group of friends a child hangs out with. The child becomes more secretive or isolated. Mood changes, such as irritability, "laziness" or being unmotivated to participate in favorite activities. An increase in patterns of staying out late or sleeping at odd hours or for long durations of time. Displays symptoms of depression or hostility. Begins to show a carelessness in grooming. A change in academic performance. What to do if your child is using marijuana Schedule an appointment with a substance abuse counselor immediately, for a third-party assessment of the problem as well as the parent-child relationship. Be open to the counselor's suggestions; a recovery and counseling program explores family issues, including what got the child where he or she is today. Help the child to understand that counseling is intended to re-establish contact, firm up guidelines and build trust. Be prepared to stand behind boundaries and expectations for the child if he or she resists counseling or denies the drug problem. Depending on the situation, consider buying at-home urinalysis tests or reporting the child to police. Where to get more help Ankeny Substance Abuse Project (ASAP): (515) 964-4357 Youth and Shelter Services in Ames: (515) 233-3141 Cornerstone Recovery Center in Ankeny: (515) 289-2272 First Step Mercy Recovery Center in Des Moines: (515) 271-6075 Powell Chemical Dependency Center at Iowa Lutheran Hospital: (515) 263-2424 Learn more on the Web For information on Cornerstone Recovery, visit www.cfiowa.org. For information on Employee & Family Resources, visit www.efr.org. For information on substance abuse, visit www.drugfreeinfo.org. Pot References, Definitions Acapulco Gold: A highly potent form of marijuana, said to grow in the Acapulco region of Mexico. AK-47: Marijuana with a THC content of at least 20 percent. Amped-out: Fatigue after using marijuana. BC Bud: Highly potent form of marijuana from British Columbia. Blunt: A hollowed-out cigar stuffed with marijuana. Brick: A block of marijuana, compressed and packaged; usually a kilogram in weight. Bud: Usually refers to commercial-grade pot. Can: Slightly more than an ounce of marijuana. Dynamite: An exceptionally powerful form of marijuana. Key: A kilogram of marijuana. Kind Bud: Any highly potent form of marijuana. Lid: Slightly more than an ounce of marijuana (West Coast term). Manicure: To take the twigs, stems and seeds out of bulk marijuana to prepare it for smoking. Mgobi: (pronounced "Ma-Go-Bee"). A big and well-rolled joint. Panama Red: A powerful form of marijuana from Panama. Weight: A large quantity of marijuana, often used for selling purposes: "I'm looking to cop weight." Yard: $100. Source: U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Iowa law enforcement, marijuana users. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman