Middle school students at an after-school health education program in the South Bronx start the session by sharing what they already know about cannabis.
The seventh-graders from Intermediate School 218 Rafael Hernandez Dual Language Magnet School understand it comes from a plant. It smells, they say, and it can feel addictive. They’ve heard it can impact your lungs. Peer facilitators, who are seniors in high school, transcribe their callouts on the board.
“It’s easy to get,” one student says. Another chimes in that you can get it at a smoke shop.
As politicians grapple with the proliferation of an estimated 2,500 unlicensed dispensaries in New York, teens are taking matters into their own hands to learn about marijuana and make informed decisions about its use.
After legalization for adults ages 21 and older, the nonprofit WHEDco’s peer-led Just Ask Me, or “JAM,” program, in which mentors talk to younger students about sexual education, is adding lessons on cannabis to its curriculum and expanding to two other Bronx schools.
The workshop teaches teens about its effects as cannabis products are growing not only more accessible, but also stronger and easier to hide in school using edibles and vapes.
Teachers report seeing more and younger students coming to school high, but reliable data is out of date. In 2021, 12% of city public high school students reported using marijuana in the past 30 days, according to the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey, compared with 18% before the pandemic.
At the after-school program, seventh-graders are told there is no safe amount of cannabis for their age group, and not everyone smokes weed or smokes regularly. Products can vary in strength and are more potent than ever, and may contain hazardous chemicals.
A qualified adult coordinator interjects as needed. Students can ask questions anonymously by jotting them down on a notecard for the next session.
The group learns the science behind the drug, such as the difference between CBD and THC, which creates the “high” feeling, and that heavy use can interfere with dopamine production and cause addiction. Weed can make you feel sick, from the “spins” to vomiting, the high school seniors say, and edibles may not kick in right away.
School safety agents have confiscated marijuana 312 times since the start of this school year, police data show. Last year, incidents reached almost double that by the summer.
It’s a problem that WHEDco’s president, Davon Russell, could smell from a mile away.
“I thought, this sounds good,” Russell said of legalization, including New York’s priority for retail licenses to people with marijuana-related criminal history. “But my concern,” he continued, “is what are we doing to educate kids?”
Russell is not one for pearl-clutching: He knows weed has long been accessible on the corner or at some bodegas in the Bronx. But with legalization, he predicted enforcement would drop, and more people could get away with selling to minors. Education, he says, is not keeping pace with illegal pot shops’ attempts to market to teens, who know which stores will overlook their age.
“We’re now scrambling?” Russell said. “We knew this. What is new is how decorative and aggressive they are in their presentation. You can go get a Dylan’s Candy-looking storefront.”
After calling New York’s cannabis rollout a “disaster,” as Gov. Hochul is negotiating a budget with state lawmakers this year that would bolster the power of the state’s cannabis office and give city law enforcement the authority to padlock the doors of illegal shops.
“These illicit vendors flagrantly violate our laws by selling to kids,” Hochul said last week at a Manhattan press conference to highlight her proposal, “evading our taxes and engaging in fraudulent advertising about their products. Sometimes the products are even laced with dangerous chemicals.”
A focus on teen cannabis use is baked into the law. After upfront costs, 20% of the remaining tax revenue is supposed to go into a drug treatment and education fund, including a youth-focused public health campaign with school-based prevention and intervention services.
A spokesman for the state’s Office of Cannabis Management did not provide an update on the fund, but teens are feeling the absence of reliable information.
“We’re surrounded by mixed and confusing messages,” Richeiny Pimentel-Soto, one of the high school facilitators, tells the middle school students.
More than a year after the city’s first legal dispensary opened near Astor Place, the Bronx is home to only one brick-and-mortar shop. But unlicensed stores pockmark the streets, which the peer mentors worry could leave young kids with the impression that its use is widespread.
“I see one of these on every corner,” Jacelynn Ventura de la Cruz, a senior, said of the message it sends. “It cannot be that serious if it’s all in my face like that.”
Peer mentors at JAM, who are paid for their work, go through trainings over school breaks. They receive lesson plans beforehand and meet after each session to debrief. The older students, too, often learn from the curriculum, which also covers topics such as puberty, contraception and healthy relationships.
“There’s times I don’t know some of the things myself,” said Aidyn Vega, a high school senior.
Students are not taught to abstain from marijuana but to make decisions that keep them safe. The facilitators hope to help the seventh-graders understand that just because it is legal, it is not without potential downsides, particularly for their age group.
“I don’t think it’s trying to stop them from doing them,” said Jacelynn. “People are gonna gravitate toward it anyways.”
“Whatever we teach these kids,” she added, “it’s just so they can make an informed decision.”
With Tim Balk
