The Berrien County Health Department and the Voice, Change, Hope, Alliance are once again teaming up to educate the community about the negative effects of underage marijuana use while providing resources for parents to help keep their kids on the right path.
Health department prevention supervisor Lisa Peeples-Hurst tells us they’re still seeing teenagers using marijuana, especially since marijuana was legalized in Michigan.
“As always, the health department is not trying to tell adults what to do,” Peeples-Hurst said. “The great voters of this state legalized recreational marijuana for people 21 years of age or older. But what we find is, as soon as something is legalized, then our youth have a lowered perception of harm and risk.”
They figure if it’s legal, then it can’t be all that bad.
Peeples-Hurst says the county has seen a slight increase in monthly marijuana use among those under the age of 21 in the last year, so it’s using social media and visiting schools to spread the word about the substance’s dangers. She says because a person’s brain isn’t done developing well into their 20s, using marijuana in your teens is a bad idea.
“When you couple that with risky behavior, you’re going to do poorly in school, you’re going to do poorly on the job. In fact, most colleges now, especially for their athletes that are coming to the school as well as others that are on scholarships, they actually administer marijuana tests.”
Peeples-Hurst says the Berrien County Health Department visited 30 schools this past academic year to talk with students. And she says they’ve got to start young — at the fifth grade — because the average age of first use for a substance is 11.
