Images courtesy of Public Health Seattle-King County
Young people in Washington are still getting their hands on weed that’s supposed to be limited to adults.
That access to cannabis varies by age with older kids still buying it on the street, taking it from home with or without permission or even buying some products with THC from corner stores because it’s in an unregulated form that state lawmakers are just now trying to regulate. The state only regulates products with what’s known as Delta-9 THC. Those other products, often chemically-derived from hemp, contain Delta-8 THC among other forms, which is not regulated. The State House is currently working on a bill already passed by the Senate to regulate all products with THC in the I-502 marketplace, which would make it illegal for them to be sold at bodegas and would limit them to sales only in dispensaries licensed by the Liquor and Cannabis Board for medical or recreational sales.
Sarah Ross-Viles with Seattle-King County Public Health tells the Board of Health for the youngest kids, it’s not about taking an edible to get high. Ross-Viles says, “This is…opportunistic and probably by the design of the product and the packaging itself.” Those packages and the candies or drinks themselves are often made in bright colors and with labels that don’t look much different from the products you’d find at your local stores.”
Ross-Viles says teenagers say they also find the edibles packaging appealing, but they don’t bother to look at the THC concentration. “What we heard from them is ‘if it’s on the counter at a party, I’m going to eat it,’” Ross-Viles says, “and ‘if it’s a bag of pretzels, even if the pretzels are individually-wrapped, I might eat all the pretzels.’ So there’s different aspects of what contributes to the youth appeal.”
And because pot products – especially with higher concentrations – can be harmful to young, developing brains, King County is working on a pilot program for providing safe storage to help curb that access. Ross-Viles says the harm that can be caused can range from lower grades and memory issues to psychosis that could lead to a trip to the emergency room.
