Child and teen safety is a primary consideration when framing cannabis regulations. Despite best efforts from states and municipalities, there are cases where people under 21 get ahold of some gummies or vapes. Unfortunately, in Detroit, things reached a boiling point in schools.
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At the beginning of the month, Detroit Public School Superintendent Nikolai Vitti emailed a letter to the governor and lawmakers asking for funds and services to mitigate cannabis products in schools. The letter cited a 500 percent rise in drug-related incidences in two years. There were 289 incidents from 2019 to 2021 and 1735 from 2021 to 2023.
The letter ended with a request for tax funds for vape detection technology (think smoke detectors), packaging changes, and public awareness campaigns. At that time, Detroit City Council member Angela Whitfield-Calloway asked the Legislative Police Division (LPD) to weigh in.
LPD recommendations address each point of need in a letter to the Detroit City Council. The results mirror much of what is said in a recent GreenState op-ed.
Addressing the problem of cannabis in schools
Packaging is the first subject covered in the letter to the City Council, to which it questions what products are littering lockers. The letter was posed with a photo of packaging that clearly did not come from the regulated market. It is a weed-themed knockoff of popular candy, strictly prohibited by regulations.
It isn’t clear whether this photo was obtained from the police department as an example or depicts one of the actual edibles found on campus. Knowing whether products finding their way into kids’ hands are regulated, Farm Bill THC, or truly illicit is essential to understanding how to beat the problem.
The state is clear that the regulations prohibit packaging that attracts kids. It also requires that all edibles be sold in resealable, child-proof containers. So, theoretically, if people keep them in the original package, they will all remain labeled and locked away. Essentially, the response to the call for cannabis symbols on edibles themselves was shrugged off.
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Vapor detection systems are addressed next. These are similar to smoke detectors but for vapor. Some schools have put these systems in place, and the LPD says those institutions paid for the hardware and installation using money recouped from lawsuits against JUUL. The state all but suggests that the schools do the same.
Cannabis education is key
Public education is the one point that the LPD and Detroit superintendent agreed on. Under $40k is set aside from cannabis taxes for public awareness around avoiding youth substance abuse. It cites that this is clearly not enough to cover the needs of the almost 170,000 minor Detroiters. The letter poses that discussions of a new tax percentage must start with the Department of Health immediately to mitigate that lack.
This letter suggests that public awareness is only one step and that established programs must fill the gap. Sports, school trips, art, mentorships, and similar offerings direct teens’ reward-seeking behavior toward skill-building activities over pot and other dopamine releases. The LPD encouraged the city council to invest in these programs as well as parent-teen education to truly tackle the issue of youth substance abuse.
According to headlines, kids vaping weed and eating gummies are becoming a problem in schools. This series of letters is a solid study of the work being done in weed now. The sexy process of legalizing and celebrating is over in many states, and municipalities and state governments are grappling with what legal weed actually looks like in the long term. Truly protecting public health will take years of tweaking regulations and laws until the engine is oiled.
Fortunately for the weed industry, this issue may be settled without more taxation or operations changes. The steps forward actually require work from everyone. Parents, teens, educators, cannabis operators, state regulators, and lawmakers should all be keying into what is working and what isn’t in the growing space. If all speak up, then everyone contributes to the future of weed in their state.
