Between 2016 and 2022, hospitalizations and emergency room visits for “cannabis poisonings” in Montana for people ages 0-17 went up 200%, according to Missoula Public Health’s substance use prevention coordinator Leah Fitch-Brody. In Missoula County, that number was 142% for kids between ages 0-14.
Fitch-Brody was citing statistics from the Montana Hospital Association and was speaking to the Missoula City Council last week during an informational presentation about youth cannabis use.
The city council members heard from Ben Cort, an author and consultant who city council member Amber Sherrill called a “recognized expert on cannabis policy.”
This graph demonstrates youth substance use rates since the 1990s.
Sherrill said that she and fellow council member Gwen Jones invited Cort to speak about what other communities are doing as marijuana is becoming legalized in more places.
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“Since I think in a lot of states it came down without as much direction as maybe would have been ideal,” Sherrill said.
Montana legalized recreational cannabis use for people over the age of 21 on Jan. 1, 2022. But a report from the nonprofit Healthy Missoula Youth recently shed light on a rising trend of marijuana use among people under 21 in Missoula.
“According to youth responses to the 2022 Montana Prevention Needs Assessment and national Monitoring the Future data, Missoula youth are more likely to use marijuana than their peers in the state and across the nation,” the report stated. “In addition, Missoula high school youth marijuana use is on an upward trend. According to the Montana Youth Risk Behavior Survey, Missoula high school students reported a 22% increase in marijuana use between 2019 and 2021.”
Dr. Faith Price, the director of prevention at All Nations Health Center and the chair of the Healthy Missoula Youth’s law and policy committee, said that she and others are trying to figure out what effective policies there are to discourage the under-age use of cannabis.
Cort said that the most dangerous trend is the increase in potency, or the percentage of THC, that’s in cannabis products.
“Marijuana has become significantly more potent since the 1960s,” he explained.
He said today’s modern compounds, such as THC distillates, bear almost no resemblance to the cannabis plant that’s been used by humans for thousands of years.
“The cannabis plant was doing very little damage to the human brain and body, however this drug, this high-potency THC, is a nightmare for us,” he said. “And I mean we’ve been jumping up and down and waving our hands for a decade, emergency room docs and those of us in the treatment side and in the psychiatric community. And the problem is we still continue to get this message from everybody that it’s just weed.”
He said recent studies have found that addiction rates for THC have tripled due to high-potency products. He also said that 30% of schizophrenia cases in men aged 21-30 are caused by high-potency THC products.
Cort also said that many stores are calling high-potency products cannabis.
“When we use the word cannabis to describe a concentrate, it’s fundamentally misleading,” he said. “That’s like comparing the coca plant to crack. Cannabis is a plant that grows in the ground.”
Cort said that historically, cannabis had about .5% THC. On a recent search of Missoula stores, he said he found many products around 20%.
“If hash oil is Pee Wee Herman, this is Hulk Hogan,” Cort said.
City council member Bob Campbell, a retired police officer, said he’s heard a lot of stories about psychotic episodes caused by high-THC products.
“It’s not your father’s Woodstock cannabis from the late ’60s and early ’70s,” Campbell said. He said he’s worried about the monetary cost to society 10-20 years from now due to youth use of cannabis.
Cort said no state has been successful in curtailing the amount of THC that is in products. He said that because there is so much money involved, the cannabis industry has powerful lobbyists that work to influence lawmakers.
“Yeah, it is very reminiscent of Big Tobacco’s playbook,” Sherrill said. “And that’s exactly what people started worrying about as it became legal and we had the bigger companies and they had more money and the more powerful lobbies. So I share a little bit of your distress.”
Cort also said that many marijuana stores and cannabis product companies advertise to youth by offering candy-like flavors, colors and delivery methods like gummies and vapes.
Montana Sen. Willis Curdy, a Democrat representing a big swatch of the Missoula area, said he and other lawmakers made sure that state law prohibits marijuana stores and companies from advertising to children.
But Jacqueline Kline with Healthy Missoula Youth and Missoula Public Health said that those two organizations recently conducted an assessment that found many shops are advertising to youth.
“There are 59 cannabis stores in Missoula County, and a lot of them are doing advertising that is specifically targeting youth,” she said. “A lot of that is in flavors and cartoons. I know it’s not supposed to be allowed in Montana, but it’s a gray area.”
She also said that there are only three staffers from the Montana Cannabis Control Division who inspect all the stores in Missoula County, Mineral County, Ravalli County and Flathead County. She said that some stores are only inspected once a year and a lot of things “slip by.”
“I do think enforcement is difficult and capacity is difficult, and we do experience that on a local level,” Sherrill said.
Cort said the Missoula market is “oversaturated,” meaning there are too many retailers. He said Missoula should be careful if it considers limiting the number of retail licenses, because that pushes out the “mom and pop” stores and allows big, multinational corporations to move in.
Jones asked Cort if there are examples of cities using zoning code changes to limit the number of marijuana retailers in certain areas.
Cort said the city should be careful about that as well, because it has often led to marijuana retailers being located in poorer neighborhoods where residents are less likely to collectively organize opposition.
David Erickson is the business reporter for the Missoulian.