I'm very sorry that your daughter's life has been so deeply and adversely impacted by pot addiction. I haven't minimized or glossed over the possibility that it can be harmful, and especially to the young, but it's quite rare for it be the cause of devastation. Her experiences quite understandably fuel your passions.
My own experiences are diametrically different from her's. I've been using medical marijuana to help alleviate pain following injuries and dental procedures (I've had an incredibly unusual number of them due to some traumas to my mouth), with the intense physical stress that come from being a competitive dancer and track and field runner, and with other significant health issues for quite a while now because it is more effective and has substantially less of an adverse impact on me than prescription pain medication. I have a very rare endocrine disorder called Addison's Disease, and it's crucial that I minimize physical and mental stress because my body doesn't have the natural defense mechanisms to properly cope. The medicine I have to take daily can sometimes generate very unpleasant effects and this helps to counteract it. I'm 5'9 and weighed just 107 pounds in March, and being that underweight was putting my body in distress. I also was going for days on end without being able to sleep more than an hour a night. One of my friends from real life who is on here but lives in a time zone three hours ahead of me can tell you about how many times in the spring I was texting with her at 3 in the morning my time to try to make some joy out of brutal insomnia robbing me of any rest. This has helped significantly with nausea without making me woozy and dopey like the only prescription antiemetic that works on me. That medicine did help me to sleep - but for about 14 hours at a time, and then would wreck my sleep patterns for the rest of the week. It's helped with appetite stimulation, and as of this morning I'm at 113. It's helped me to actually sleep. I can't tell you what a huge toll not sleeping has on your immune system, state of mind, and overall wellbeing and what a tremendous relief it is to actually be able to snooze. Just last week I fell seven feet while doing aerial dance and was coated with horrendous bruises. Advil wouldn't touch it. Prescription medicine just made me feel like a zombie, which stressed me out because I have so much I need to get finished. My little vaporizing pen saved my week.
John F. Kennedy also had Addison's Disease, and there is documented evidence that he used marijuana in the White House, smoking 4-6 joints at a time when especially stressed. This was detailed in his biography. Rather than impairing him from being able to function, it enabled him to better function. I'm going to Stanford in the fall; this month I've won a prestigious art scholarship and three academic scholarships; and I compete a national dance competition this summer. I'm not sharing this to brag but to explain that my ambition has not in any way been stunted. Your entire world can come to a halt with Addison's sometimes. This has actually enabled me to more fully pursue my dreams and keep my life on track and moving forward. Medical marijuana is legal in my state, including for minors. I'm 17. I'm not breaking the law. I'm not doing anything unethical, or wrong either. My parents (two doctors) stand firmly behind me on this because they've seen its benefit. I also have many friends who don't have medical conditions that qualify them for the card, but have used it to help with anxiety, stress, and other reasons. From my own experiences, I can understand how. "Recreational" use for marijuana isn't always actually "recreational."
It's actually not naive, but you're misunderstanding what I meant by that so I'll clarify. Of course if marijuana was legalized for recreational use underage minors would still obtain and use it illegally, just as they do with alcohol and blackmarket Adderall. It would however make it
less of a forbidden fruit. Consider how the drinking age being 21 has not curbed underage drinking at colleges. I agree with the sentiments here about it:
http://www.indiana.edu/~engs/articles/fruit.html It's still prevalent on college campuses, but increased education about alcohol has helped to better recognize the symptoms of alcohol poisoning, to understand the effects of alcohol on the body and mind, and to curb DUIs.
Yeah, there's been education about marijuana for years, but much of it has been a joke, not just to the stoners but to many others because it often disproportionally focuses on the negatives, fails to acknowledge any of the known benefits, and doesn't dispel common misconceptions. It's sort of like how scare-mongering sex education classes that focus on showing gory pictures of genitals afflicted with STDs and push abstinence-only tend to be taken far less seriously than ones that are more balanced and reasonable. So many teens think that marijuana is absolutely harmless and that adults are Chicken Littles screaming about how the sky is falling. I feel like the classes we've had at my school that are more comprehensive and balanced have helped with responsible use. We've learned how marijuana affects people under the age of 25 who are still cognitively developing differently from adults. We've learned about how it can be very paradoxical and cause both anxiety, paranoia, and fear and calmness, depending on the person, what was consumed, and the quantity of it. It can cause weight gain, or weight loss. With younger people who might not yet have been diagnosed with a condition they have, marijuana can create more problems because they don't realize that it could impact them differently than friends. As I wrote before, it's been used as a maladaptive coping mechanism, both for ordinary problems such as to distract from stresses of the day or to fill up time when bored - to being used as a substitute for appropriate care for more significant problems like cutting, depression, bipolar, eating disorders, and the like. Understanding all that can actually help a teen be able to recognize when a friend is using marijuana inappropriately and to try to help.
Education wouldn't just come from schools and PSAs, though. If it was legally available, and regulated there would likely be labels with instructions on how much to use, who shouldn't use it, what to do in the event of accidental overdose, and the like. They wouldn't have to look to the internet for answers but would instead have information about their specific product in their hand.
Many who sell marijuana are actually productive and benevolent people who are trying to provide something they believe is helpful to others. Many are also responsible about it and wouldn't sell it to kids. I know of a veteran who provides it in a state where medical marijuana isn't available yet to other veterans who are helped more by it than with prescription medication for various physical and emotional problems. He's one of the least "fluffy" people I've ever met. Of course there are also people who only care about the money and don't give a flying frickadoodle about the person buying it, or why. There are also doctors who irresponsibly overmedicate patients and ones who are ethical. I don't believe in looking only at the positives or the negatives, but about the whole spectrum in between.
