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What parents need to know about marijuana legalization
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As a wave of marijuana legalization spreads across the country, parents are eager to understand how legalization will affect their school-age children and to know what to do to protect their children. Experts weigh in. - photo by Deborah Sutton
The permission slip for an overnight high school DECA competition in Colorado banned students from bringing illegal drugs or alcohol.

Oh, so we can bring pot, said Diane Carlsons daughter to her mom.

The comment was a joke, but for Carlson, the co-founder of Smart Colorado, an organization striving to protect the wellbeing and future of Colorados youth in the wake of marijuana legalization, it was a grim reminder about why she's worried about children as the state slowly adapts to the new norm of legalization.

As the first state to legalize the commercial sale of pot, Colorado has been turned into an experimental lab of sorts. After one year of legalization, no one is certain if the new policy will reduce crime or addiction to other substances, or if it will create unanticipated social and health ills.

For parents in Colorado and beyond, the main concern is how legalization will affect their school-age children. Unfortunately, it will be years before there is reliable data. For now, parents must judge for themselves and take necessary precautions based on spotty surveys, incident reports and expert opinions.

All departments of government have really worked tirelessly to make sure (legalization) doesnt affect public health and safety and that were keeping marijuana out of the hands of kids, said Skyler McKinley, deputy director of marijuana policy for the state of Colorado. I think weve done an incredible job with that in this first year (considering) were the first people in the world to do this.

Edibles, vapors and potency

Within a few months of legalization, over 300 kinds of edible products laced with marijuana appeared on licensed store shelves. Teens brought to homes and schools foods like candies, butter, sodas, juices, pasta sauce, cookies and cereals with no distinguishable labeling saying they contained marijuana, according to news reports.

Colorado lawmakers acted fast to pass laws to prohibit manufacturers from adding marijuana to trademarked products and to enforce explicit labeling on packages.

A later legislative proposal also requires edible marijuana products to be shaped, stamped, colored, or otherwise marked with a standard symbol indicating marijuana and prohibits adding marijuana to a product that is primarily marketed to children. However, that law wont be enacted until Jan. 1, 2016.

Meantime, local news outlets have reported edibles being accidentally ingested by small children and sold and eaten by students at school, and teens using marijuana vaporizers, which can be easily purchased at grocery stores, to hide the familiar smell of burning pot.

Most research done on how marijuana affects the brain uses marijuana at 2-5 percent THC potency, meaning the amount of tetrahydrocannabinol, the primary ingredient in marijuana that causes its psychological effects, said Carlson, referring to an article published on Smart Colorado. Yet in Colorado, weve legalized concentrates up to 90 percent THC levels.

We have no idea how these THC concentration levels are absorbed in and affect the body, she said.

It would be smart to lower the legal amount of THC in edible products, said Katharine Neill, Glassell postdoctoral fellow in drug policy at Rice University's Baker Institute. Right now, you might have one cookie with 100 milligrams of THC. (You can) tell people to divide it, but it's difficult for people to eat just one piece of a cookie, so they eat too much and end up hospitalized.

Perceptions and reality

Legalizing marijuana lowers the perceptions of harm, Carlson fears. Too many of our kids have gotten the message that its not dangerous since its sold in retail stores and regulated by the government.

A 2014 survey by the National Institute on Drug Abuse found more than 60 percent of high school seniors do not perceive a great risk in using marijuana regularly, a marked increase from just 20 percent in the early 1990s.

The perceptions are similar among adults. According to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll in March 2014, 88 percent of adult Americans believe tobacco, alcohol or sugar is more harmful to a persons health than marijuana.

The gap between public perception and scientific reality is worrisome for health professionals. Years of studies, the most recently done by Harvard and Northwestern universities, prove that even moderate marijuana use among adolescents and young people creates developmental abnormalities in the brain affecting emotion, cognition and motivation.

"Our kids are having to navigate an increasingly dangerous landscape, we must arm them with the facts so they can protect themselves and can have the chance to reach their full potential," wrote Carlson in an email. To do this, "parents must stay informed on the latest trends and medical studies, teach their children about the dangers of adolescent drug and alcohol use, and be politically active in fighting for laws they believe will protect the health, welfare and futures of their children."
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Record April boosts Savannah's container trade at port
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The Port of Savannah moved 356,700 20-foot equivalent container units in April, an increase of 7.1 percent. - photo by Provided

The Georgia Ports Authority's busiest April ever pushed its fiscal year-to-date totals to more than 3.4 million 20-foot equivalent container units (TEUs), an increase of 8.8 percent, or 280,000 TEUs, compared to the first 10 months of fiscal 2017.

"We're on track to move more than 300,000 TEUs in every month of the fiscal year, which will be a first for the authority," said GPA Executive Director Griff Lynch. "We're also anticipating this to be the first fiscal year for the Port of Savannah to handle more than 4 million TEUs."

April volumes reached 356,700 20-foot equivalent container units, up 7.1 percent or 23,700 units. As the fastest growing containerport in the nation, the Port of Savannah has achieved a compound annual growth rate of more than 5 percent a year over the past decade.

"As reported in the recent economic impact study by UGA's Terry College of Business, trade through Georgia's deepwater ports translates into jobs, higher incomes and greater productivity," said GPA Board Chairman Jimmy Allgood. "In every region of Georgia, employers rely on the ports of Savannah and Brunswick to help them become more competitive on the global stage."

To strengthen the Port of Savannah's ability to support the state's future economic growth, the GPA Board approved $66 million in terminal upgrades, including $24 million for the purchase of 10 additional rubber-tired gantry cranes.  

"The authority is committed to building additional capacity ahead of demand to ensure the Port of Savannah remains a trusted link in the supply chain serving Georgia and the Southeast," Lynch said.

The crane purchase will bring the fleet at Garden City Terminal to 156 RTGs. The new cranes will support three new container rows, which the board approved in March. The additional container rows will increase annual capacity at the Port of Savannah by 150,000 TEUs.

The RTGs will work over stacks that are five containers high and six deep, with a truck lane running alongside the stacks. Capable of running on electricity, the cranes will have a lift capacity of 50 metric tons.

The cranes will arrive in two batches of five in the first and second quarters of calendar year 2019.

 Also at Monday's meeting, the GPA Board elected its officers, with Jimmy Allgood as chairman, Will McKnight taking the position of vice chairman and Joel Wooten elected as the next secretary/treasurer.

For more information, visit gaports.com, or contact GPA Senior Director of Corporate Communications Robert Morris at (912) 964-3855 or rmorris@gaports.com.

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