KH 3000

Presented by:

Leonede Buller Mishinda DeBose

B.Jermaine Price Edricka Burnett
Towanda Smith Shameika Averett
Marijuana is a green, brown, or gray mixture of
dried, shredded leaves, stems, seeds, and flowers of the
hemp plant.

Also known as pot, herb, grass, weed, boom, Mary Jane,

gangster, reefer, blunt, or chronic and some 200 others
 Types
• Regular • Purple
• Chronic • Cali Skunk
• mid-grade • Indo
• Hydro • Sinsemilla
• Hashish • Fry
 How is it Used?
• Usually smoked as a
cigarette rolled, hand-
made (called a joint or
a nail), in pipe or a
bong. Has recently
appeared in cigars
called blunts and
spliffs.
Marijuana is on the Rise Among
Middle School Age Students
 Why?
• Increase in availability of marijuana and
other drugs
• Teens being misguided about marijuana as
being a natural product.
• They’re unaware of the mood-altering and
physiological effects.
• Has become some-what accepted by society
through media and radio waves
 Why?
• Less expensive of all drugs, next to alcohol.

• As stated by Insel and Roth, “One reason

for our society’s concern with the casual or
recreational use of illegal drugs is that it’s
not really possible to know when drug use
will lead to abuse or dependence.”
 Reason for its use
• Peer Pressure – because friends or siblings
use it
• Family influence – because they see older
people in family using it
• Listening to music and songs that refer to its
use.
• Belief of escaping form problems at home,
school, or with friends
Warning Signs Parents Should
Look For…
• Increasing agitation and irritability
• Loss of motivation and interest in previously
enjoyed activities
• Decreased attention span and increased distracted
behavior
• Red or glassy eyes, extreme fatigue, and poor health
• A loss of motivation and interest in previously
enjoyed activities
• A significant weight gain or loss
• Withdrawal from former friends who do not
use drugs
• Failure to acquire age-appropriate social
skills
• Depression, confusion, and mood swings
• Changes in likes and dislikes to a more
conventional style (such as with music, hair,
and clothing
 Short Term Effects
…the effects of Marijuana are influenced by users
expectations and past experiences
• Low Dosage • Moderate dosage
– Euphoria, heighten of – Dryness of the mouth,
subjective sensory reddening of the eyes,
experiences, impaired motor skills
hallucinations, and memory function,
fantasies, paranoia, lapse of attention,
laid-back attitude frequent hunger attacks
“munchies”, and
feelings of
depersonalization
 Does marijuana affect school, sports,
driving, and other activities?
• Biggest hazard for teens: Marijuana makes them
mess up in school, sports, clubs, or with friends.
• When high, more likely to make stupid mistakes.
• Strong link between drug use and unsafe sex
leading to spread of HIV
• Lost of energy, interest and impaired vision
• Timing, coordination, alertness, and performance
all affected
 Long term effects
• Bronchitis, emphysema, • reproductive system
bronchial asthma, soar (decrease in
throats, coughs, chronic testosterone, decreased
obstructive pulmonary sperm count,
disease, increased heart abnormality of sperm,
rate, increased risk to impaired fetal growth
lungs, short term and development),
memory, glaucoma, physical dependency,
suppresses immune leads to subsequent use
system of cocaine and heroine
 Statistics
• About 1 – 5 8th graders report they are current
marijuana users (used within past month)
• Is the most widely used illegal drug in U.S. (more
than 30 % of Americans, about 67 million, have
tried it at least once)
• According to the National Household Survey on
Drug Abuse (NHSDA) states that among youths
age 12-17, 10.9% reported past month use of illicit
drugs in ’99.
• 7.7 % of youths were current users in 1999
 Effects on the Brain
• The chemicals travel through
bloodstream and attach to
special places on brain’s
nerve cells (receptors)
• THC disrupts nerve cells in
part of brain where
memories are found, making
it harder for user to recall
recent events and hard to
learn while high.
• Toll taken on mental
functions
 Availability
• According to study, 50% of 13 year olds reported
they could find and purchase marijuana.
• From peers (others that are older)
• Today it is available in all walks of life
(metropolitan, suburban, and rural areas)
• Can be purchased for as little as $5
• Those that distribute marijuana have now become
your next door neighbor or mutual friend
 Overall Usage
• Abuse of Alcohol or 20
Other Controlled
Substances for Persons 15

12-17 years of age in

10 1994
1994 -1995 1995
5

0
TOTAL FEMALE
Societal
ocietal Effects
Effects
• Society sends kids mixed messages about alcohol,
tobacco, and other drugs

• Kids see and hear messages intended for adults –

misinterpret them as being for kids

• We, society, mourns for rock stars who die from

overdoses then kids believe all role models use
drugs and its okay to use drugs
 Television
• Before age 10, a child has seen about 12,000 hours
– approx. 17 commercials per hour, so they have
seen over 200,000 commercials by 10th birthday

• About 25% commercials have been for over-the-

counter drugs – in turn kids see 50,000 O-T-C
before reaching age 10 – before developing moral
reasoning needed to process the reasoning.
Music
Artists

• Bob Marley – Reggae

• The Grateful Dead – Rock
• Cheech and Chong –
Hispanic
• Smashing Pumpkins and
Metallica – Heavy Metal
• Snoop Doggy Dog – Rap
• Erykah Badu - R&B
Solutions
olutions
What parents could do to help…
• Be good role models. Parents need to model
their behavior the way they expect their
children to behave.
• Stay involved with your children. Staying
involved keeps parents more aware of any
changed behavior.
• Educating children about drugs.
 What parents can do to help…
• Don’t make it easy. Never assume that your
children supervised appropriately. Know
where they are and who their with.
• Build a strong and resilient relationship.
• If you suspect your child has a drug
problem, seek help immediately.
 As far as Media is Concerned…
• Carefully planned mass media campaigns
can reduce substance abuse by countering
false perceptions that drug use is normative
• Also by influencing personal beliefs that
motivate drug use
• Having media programs work in
conjunction with other community – and
school-based anti-drug programs
 Prevention Program
• D.A.R.E. (Drug Awareness Resistance Education) is a
school and community based program strives for the
prevention of drug use and violence among secondary
education students.

• Their focus is on problem identification, analysis, and

utilization of systematic problem solving techniques
together with strong community partnership as a
means to achieve more effective long-term solutions to
persistent drug use and gang violence
 Prevention Program
• The National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign is an
organization that targets youth ages 9-18 (especially
the vulnerable middle-school adolescents) through the
use of various media to educate and empower young
people to reject illicit drugs.
• The Campaign uses a mix of modern communications
techniques – from advertising and public relations to
Interactive media – and all possible venues – from
television programs to after-school activities – to enlist
and engage people in prevention efforts at school,
work, and at play.
 Treatment
The Center for Substance Abuse Treatment
and The National Institute on Drug Abuse

1. Discovering what can be done to help client

write a prescription for clinical progress and
move along a continuum toward, if not
abstinence, then measurable improvement.

2. Engagement- one coming forth with problem

 Treatment
3. Create an environment in which patients are
motivated, are invested in their own recovery,
recognize incentives and disincentives of
behavior, and accept the consequences of
behavior

4. Creating an environment in which healing can

take place, where there is consistency
leadership and research
 Summary
• Being an adolescent is a risk factor for trying illicit
drugs (especially marijuana) which further leads to
habitual usage

• Percentage on a rise due to availability and

lack of awareness about marijuana

• Media and radio have come to play and increasingly

important role in raising our children and leading to the
mis-education about drugs and alcohol
 It is a social activity, and
Teens are at a loss for
Social activities right now.
“When you go to a concert
Or go dancing, the thing to
Do is smoke dope.

Rebecca Carpenter, 15
Lincoln High student (Portland, Oregon)

“It is easy to do, easy to grow, easy to get and easy

to sell”