Ganjika

CA: Kids with ADHD prescribed medical marijuana in California.
NORML | 11/25/09 | Catey Hill

California
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Hey, hyperactive kids, in California you can get stoned - legally. California doctors are now prescribing marijuana to children diagnosed with attention hyperactivity disorder, Sphere reports.

Since 2004, California has given out more than 36,000 medical marijuana prescriptions. The number of these prescriptions going to children is not known, though experts say it's on the rise. And it's creating quite a controversy.

"Let me count the ways in which prescribing marijuana for teens with ADHD is a bad idea," Stephen Hinshaw, professor of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley, told Sphere.

"The active ingredient in pot, THC, causes short-term memory problems and inattention, the very same things you want a medicine for ADHD to help alleviate," Hinshaw said.

Others have fewer qualms about giving a kid with ADHD some pot.

"I'd have no hesitation giving a youngster with ADHD a trial of oral marijuana," Lester Grinspoon, emeritus professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and author of "Marijuana: The Forbidden Medicine," told Sphere.

"For some kids, it appears to be more effective than traditional treatments. And marijuana certainly has fewer potential dangers than Ritalin."

Ritalin, like its cousin Adderall, is a treatment for ADHD, but it's also an amphetamine.

"My son was diagnosed with ADHD when he was 6," a Grass Valley, Calif., woman who wished to remain anonymous told Sphere. "He was hyperactive and had trouble in school, but we didn't want to put him on Ritalin. Too many side effects. When he got to high school, I suddenly noticed that he'd calmed and could concentrate. I couldn't figure it out. Then he told me that he'd started smoking pot."

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Marijuana Is Only Addictive In The Sense
That All Good Things In Life Are Worth Repeating...

enyajiream

I'm an adult with ADD. I used Ritalin & Tofranil over the last 25 years to treat my symptoms. My problem is that I kept forgetting to take the pills.

Long story short, I moved to California and talked to my doctor about alternative treatment for my ADD. They referred me to a compassionate use doctor who agreed that it would be beneficial for treatment of ADD.

I particularly enjoy it because now I have a medicine I can always remember to take and the effects keep me focused and attentive. I don't even get munchies. It just acts as medicine.

It comes as no surprise to me that it'd work on kids.

But let me be clear on one thing: I support legalization for medical purposes but I don't support the abuse of it a.k.a. recreational use.

Kushy

So when someone uses the same medicine as you do for different reasons it's suddenly called "abuse" of the drug? Why are you not in support of all-around legalization if I may ask

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Drinking and driving leads to DUI
So I try to stay sober while I'm drivin this high

cj117

I have ADHD and I gotta say, when I'm thinking about something while I'm stoned, I'm always focused on it. It has definitely calmed me down a LOT.

The only opposition I have to kids using MJ, even if they are using it for medicine, is its effects on the brain. Might it effect their long term development? The brain is super sensitive in young adulthood.
Then again, I was on Ritalin since I was 7, along with other medications, and they've probably contributed to how fucked up I am now! I don't imagine MJ would have been ANY worse, though!

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Cannabis_Joe

From my understanding, there are no long-term effects of marijuana.
Since Marijuana has no effect on the brain(once THC leaves the body of course) I don't quite see how it could effect a child in that respect.

However, i could understand how it might have a stunting effect on the growth of the lungs. But, that's about the only thing I can personally think of right now.

I've done a great deal of research on marijuana, however, i've never really done much research on the effects to a child since i started when i was 22.

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1406

From the perspective of a 17 year old with ADHD, I find the effects of vaporizing cannabis to be far superior of Ritalin (or any of those amphetamines).

At 14 I started taking methylphenidate (generic Ritalin). I lost weight, I was miserable, and it hardly alleviated the effects of ADHD as THC does.

I don't find being 'high' (using that term loosely) all the time to be detrimental to my work ethic, health, or wellbeing.

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-1406

Change.gov | Help support legalization.

Freshness420

I often have thought of that. I mean it is not abuse if you smoke it for a purpose. Your purpose would be to help your ADD. Mine or say almost the entire population that wants to legalize it is to feel better, relax, etc.

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The only dead bodies from marijuana are in the prisons and at the hands of the police. This is ridiculous.

Ganjika

I recommend you get a Medical MJ card as soon as you can then, if not in your area, go to one that does have it, becuase while being high might not be detrimental to your work ethic, health or well being, going to jail for a victimless "crime" (medicating), would be.

much love

Mista420

Yeah i have have ADHD and my parents well not put me on anytype of pill because they say it turns people into zombies and they cant be there self. But with weed (they dont know about hehe) im calm and focused and i can say weed does help me with school and my ADHD.

Ganjika

http://www.marijuana.com/drug-war-headline-news/135001-uk-maternal-tobacco-alcohol-use-but-not-marijuana-associated-psychotic-symptoms.html#post1215208"]

UK: Maternal Tobacco+Alcohol Use,But Not Marijuana,Associated With Psychotic Symptoms

This might be of some interest, i don't believe medicinal marijuana for young children under the supervision and recommendation of a doctor would be to much harm - considering as some one said before, the amount of hardship ampetamines must put a young body through (or any body for that matter).

marijuana has killed whom? hurt whom?

okay, now what about ritalin, wellbutran, adderall...

check out the video below - it doesn't have much to do with the topic at hand, but does have a lot to do with the dangers of prescription drugs which arean't anywere near as safe as medical marijuana...

(I know somebody that has to live with that! ^^^^^^^ [paxil shocks])