Regional Meeting Minutes: Youth and Marijuana

Regional Meeting Minutes: Youth and Marijuana

Monday, December 3rd, 10am to 12noon

1. Introductions/Ice Breaker

1. What do people see as some of the implications in their towns since decriminalization?

• Perception of harm increased, use rates went up 5%
• Perception of harm w/ parents is changing, some parents would rather have their kids smoking pot than drinking
• Using the PRIDE survey for parent and staff data has been helpful. Has been challenging to get parents to do survey for high school students. Pre-prom mandatory meeting with parents has helped one community get a captive audience to do survey as well as capacity building activities with parents.
• Who can help with YRBS, gathering data and compiling?
• MassTAPP doesn’t have the capacity to do that ourselves
• 25% of students in our schools report use by adults in their home
• We need to extend education around perception of harm to all adults, clergy – not just parents. Need to educate teachers and staff too. Teaching force is younger and may have different views and education around perception of harm. Allow for professional development opportunities around substance abuse prevention for teachers.
• One community is working on developing survey that mimics CTC survey for parents
• DPH has a resource on maclearinghouse.com on “7 Ways to Protect Your Teen”
• It would be great to include resources for youth specifically on maclearinghouse.com as well. They do have “Choose to Keep Your Freedom” for youth.
• Important for treatment providers at the table for conversations. Majority of youth checked into treatment centers have pot as drug of choice. Many don’t think it has addictive qualities.
• If creating a survey for parents, consider calling it “Adult survey” because some youth don’t live w/ their parents but might be another caregiver.
• We’ve seen drugged driving rates increase, and higher for pot than for alcohol. Laws tougher to enforce when you can’t just do Blood alcohol level test.
• We saw a 5% inc in current use after decriminalization and perception of harm dropped 10% points from 2008-2012. Use is being done out in the community a lot – woods, parks, cars, parking lots, etc.
• Perception of legality is changing
• Senator Tarr is reintroducing his bill making pot illegal for those under 21 and re-institutes consequences for youth similar to alcohol caught using marijuana
• More reports of kids using at school or coming to school high. One teacher reported 2 kids he smelled pot on in the last two weeks – what are the policies and procedures for dealing with these issues?
• One community reported pot being smoked in back of school bus.
• What about potential for legalization? Major medical orgs are advocating for re-classification of pot as schedule 2 drug. Could move faster than think after CO and WA legalized it.

3. Question for BSAS?

• Are they going to bring in other groups for regulation language? (MHOA, MMA, etc)
• Public comment period is important
• Any conversation on policies on state law of transportation of schedule 1 drug?
• Where do they get the medical pot? How are products shipped to Mass?
• What if a kid shows up to school with med pot card? Can they smoke in school? Schools don’t have to change their policy according to the current legislation
• Lawyer firm from CO is moving to Mass to help with legality issues and helping people open dispensaries/get cards
• There is already a grow shop in Peabody and Med Box is coming to Natick. Marijuana products will have to come within the state. We can set up regulations for how they grow, where they grow, how much, etc. How do communities deal with home grows?
• It would be great if someone from CA or CO could come to MA and talk about things they missed in developing regulations
• DPH’s funding has been cut significantly, so people are skeptical about their ability to regulate and enforce. Communities are saying they can’t wait until the regulations come out to act.
• Is there going to be a delay in when the regulations are put in? There is legislation being written by some towns to delay the opening of dispensaries by 6 months or a year.

4. What are people doing now?

• It’s important to get something on your town’s agenda now before the end of the year and get it on the town’s planning board agenda. Get in touch with your city/town planner and they can explain your town’s process. Every city/town is different as far as establishing ordinances, but it starts with the planning commission. Get in touch with them now if that’s the route you want to take.
• It would be great to have some resources via a literature search on states that have medical marijuana and its effects on crime, property values, etc. Everyone please send resources to MassTAPP that aren’t on our Web site and we can add them. It would be great if MassTAPP could also email any updates from DPH to everyone as well as any legislative updates such as the Tarr bill.
• The state AG has to review all town ordinances so it the state could overturn certain town ordinances.
• What about using 2nd hand smoke ordinances for marijuana? Some towns passed marijuana bi-laws around smoking pot in public after decriminalization.
• Need to look at it on the state and federal level, feds most likely won’t be using money to regulate this at the state level.
• Some dispensaries are offering grants to non-profit community groups as incentive for allowing them in their town.

5. Topics for future meetings?

• Prevention Specialist credential process
• Future of prevention funding, especially for BSAS
• Starting new coalitions
• Law Enforcement has interest in LE education and how to get police chiefs at the table
• Building partnerships across the community, involving public health organizations like MMA, MMS
• Parent/adult education and parent engagement; especially in diverse communities