R.I. ranks second in nation for illegal use among teens
LINCOLN – Last year, Rhode Island ranked first in the nation for illegal marijuana use in a national survey on drug use and health. This year, the state ranks second, according to data presented by Pamela Shayer, coordinator of the Cumberland, Lincoln and North Smithfield prevention coalitions at a regional meeting last week about marijuana use among teens.
Last Thursday, a panel of students representing Students Against Destructive Decisions groups from Scituate, North Smithfield, Lincoln, Cumberland and Woonsocket teamed up with prevention alliances in the Blackstone Valley to discuss the drug and how it’s being used by students.
The “town hall” meeting was held at the Amica Mutual Insurance Company headquarters in Lincoln.
“Even if recreational use is legalized in all 50 states, it’s critical that we protect our youth from the damaging effects,” Shayer said in opening remarks at the meeting.
Also joining the conversation was Lilia Romero-Bosch, a psychiatrist who works with young adults and children with substance abuse issues; Margaret Johnson, a student assistance counselor; Nancy DeNuccio, chairwoman of the Ocean State Prevention Alliance; and Chief Brian Sullivan of the Lincoln Police Department.
When asked by DeNuccio where they learned about marijuana, the majority of students had one repetitive answer: their fellow classmates. A few said health class is where they learned about the drug – and not one said they first learned about marijuana and its effects from their parents.
Some of the youth panelists said discussions with their parents about marijuana are a dead-end conversation, where the students are told they would be thrown out of their house or reported to the police if they were ever caught smoking the drug.
For most of the panelists, the students explained, conversations with parents simply reiterated that the drug “is bad.”
“I think it’s assumed we have a lot of knowledge about it,” Anna Scacco of Scituate High School told The Breeze.
Many of the panelists mentioned the “just say no” slogan they learned growing up in school, but Justo Colon, a freshman at Woonsocket High School, said, “I don’t think that’s persuasive for kids.”
DeNuccio, who served as the panel moderator, spoke to the parents in the audience, and said, “I think that’s something to be aware of. … We need to educate ourselves a little bit more so that we are able to have intelligent, accurate conversations with our children about marijuana.”
Shayer noted that this year, the state ranks second for monthly use of marijuana among teens – and Rhode Island has remained in the top five rankings for the past five years. She told those in attendance that 80 percent of adolescents in the state who took a survey responded that they perceived “no great risk” from smoking marijuana, and said cigarettes are more harmful.
A majority of the students who answered the survey, she said, emphasized that smoking marijuana is “not like using heroin or cocaine.”
Chief Sullivan explained that discussions at the State House over legalization of marijuana focus on the money this could bring into the state, but “being pushed to the side is the impact that it’s going to have, especially on young people.”
The youth panel was split when it came to opinions on legalizing the drug in Rhode Island.
Logan Crooks, a Cumberland High School senior, mentioned Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, an organization he said started up after narcotics detectives in Maryland and New Jersey State Police made the argument that the prohibition of alcohol was the reason violent crime skyrocketed in the 1920s.
While he said he personally will never do drugs, he said “the drug war has not been effective, and it’s a non-violent action that when (made illegal), creates a black market infrastructure that creates violent crime.”
He spoke about repurposing energy into DUI enforcement and search and rescue canines at the state level, rather than continuing the Rhode Island State Police High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force, which combined with the drug policy, “unfairly discriminates against minority communities and individuals.”
Matthew Laferriere, a senior at North Smithfield High School, said “whether it’s illegal or not, it’s going to be there, it’s just a matter of how much regulation that will exist.”
“I personally don’t see how it could become more accessible than it already is,” said Zack Racine, also a senior at North Smithfield High School.
Mackenzie Barakat, a sophomore at Lincoln High School, said, “I think there’s something to be said about the economic prosperity that could come with marijuana legalization.” She noted if synthetic marijuana was regulated, it could be safer for users and chances of other drugs being laced with marijuana could dwindle.
But James Scacco, a Scituate High School alum who currently attends Roger Williams University, said the consequences of legalizing marijuana are unknown.
Romero-Bosch, a psychiatrist, pointed out that studies have shown anyone who smokes marijuana before 18 years old is four to six times more likely to have marijuana addiction problems as an adult. Addiction, she noted, is a specific diagnosis where a person can’t stop using the substance even if it damages their daily life.
Marijuana use, she said “is really culturally accepted,” and people have this idea that because the drug comes from a plant and is natural, it’s not harmful. Romero-Bosch noted that while the drug has been beneficial to some people with certain medical conditions, there is a problem with young adults smoking the drug, as their brains haven’t completed maturing.
“We don’t really know what that’s going to do,” she said.
Romero-Bosch said some people will use marijuana occasionally, “but how do you define once in a while? How do you know you’re one of those people who genetically can do it?”
Johnson, who works with middle school students, said she hopes state representatives will hold off making a decision until more data comes out from places like Colorado, where the drug has been legalized, to see the effects the drug can have on young people.
She explained that surveys show 39 percent of high school students in Rhode Island have tried marijuana, and seven percent of those teens are daily users, which means they’ve ingested the drug 20 out of the 30 days in a month. Johnson said this shows that teens are under the influence in school, which impacts their ability to learn.
Johnson said when it comes to marijuana use, “it’s a community issue.”
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