The High Cost of High-Potency Marijuana For Adolescents, with Dr. Libby Stuyt

ABOUT THE EPISODE:
When voters in Colorado legalized marijuana in the year 2000, they did so with good intentions: as compassionate health care for people with serious conditions.  After all, the FDA was approving THC-based medicines like marinol at doses of 20mg.  

Then concentrates hit the market.

In Colorado today, an 18-year-old with a medical marijuana card can legally purchase more than 50 times the daily dose of THC originally prescribed as medicine.  And my guest for this episode, Dr. Libby Stuyt, says she is seeing the consequences.

Dr. Stuyt is a board-certified addiction psychiatrist, and has worked in the addiction and behavioral health field for more than 30 years.  Most of that time was spent as medical director at a Colorado inpatient program for people who had failed to progress through other treatments.  She has seen it all.

In this episode Dr. Stuyt explains how we are gaining new understanding of the potential dangers of high-potency marijuana products, especially for adolescents.  We discuss:

• How the market transformed from well-intentioned medicine to a THC free-for-all
• What parents need to understand before they ask, “Where would my kid even get marijuana?”
• Why edibles can be more dangerous than smoking
• What we’ve learned about the connection between adolescent marijuana use and opiates
• Some of the most frightening problems associated with heavy users of concentrates, including rapid-onset addiction, IQ-loss, psychosis, and hyperemesis

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY ON THE SCIENCE AND IMPACT OF CANNABIS
• Johnny’s Ambassadors

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