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A Washington doctor claims that there is an upsurge in marijuana that has been fentanyl-laced, with potentially harmful effects.
Here’s what Dr. Michael Wenzinger, a staff psychiatrist at Washington University School of Medicine, said to KTVI Fox2 on Sunday, May 14th:
“In my professional life and among some of my colleagues, we’re witnessing more children stating they believed they were just smoking marijuana, when drug technological devices show fentanyl – and they would have toxicological, or medical side effects similar to that.”
Wenzinger claimed that the problem of fentanyl-laced marijuana is a relatively new occurrence. In Alabama, Illinois, Louisiana, and New York, police have allegedly discovered marijuana that has been fentanyl-laced. Drugs’ potency is cheaply increased by using the lethal opioid.
Wenzinger pointed out that marijuana’s strength has dramatically grown in recent years, and that dealers’ purposeful or unintentional fentanyl lacings might exacerbate problems.
“‘How does this high potency marijuana influence young people?’ is sort of turning into an inadvertent experiment here,” he added.
The Consequences of Such a Consumption
Wenzinger mentioned that one of these worries is the potential for an aggravation of mental health problems. According to a research published in the journal Psychological Medicine in May, schizophrenia among men between the ages of 21 and 30 may have been up to 30% avoidable if marijuana usage had not been continued over an extended period of time.
Between 1995 and 2015, the amount of THC, the primary psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, grew by more than 200%. Parents should be informed that the substance is very different from what they smoked when they were adolescents, according to Wenzinger.
Wenzinger remarked that the marijuana that people now may have grown up with is not the same as it is today.
“We’re up against a potency playing field that’s nearly entirely different.”
In spite of the fact that marijuana is now legal everywhere in the country, Wenzinger said parents should talk to their kids about the dangers of using it. He said he doesn’t want to cause panic.
“Teenage drug usage generally tends to increase when public awareness of the risk decreases,” Wenzinger added. “Consequently, it’s not surprising that marijuana usage has increased significantly.”