(New York Times) Dr. Jean Talleyrand, who founded MediCann, a network in Oakland of 20 clinics who authorize patients to use the drug, said his staff members had treated as many as 50 patients ages 14 to 18 who had A.D.H.D. Bay Area doctors have been at the forefront of the fierce debate about medical marijuana, winning tolerance for people with grave illnesses like terminal cancer and AIDS. Yet as these doctors use their discretion more liberally, such support — even here — may be harder to muster, especially when it comes to using marijuana to treat adolescents with A.D.H.D.
“How many ways can one say ‘one of the worst ideas of all time?’ ” asked Stephen Hinshaw, the chairman of the psychology department at the University of California, Berkeley. [Uh, "War on Drugs", "Drug-free America", "marijuana prohibition", hmmm, there's three ways right there...] He cited studies showing that tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the active ingredient in cannabis, disrupts attention, memory and concentration — functions already compromised in people with the attention-deficit disorder.
Advocates are just as adamant, though they are in a distinct minority. “It’s safer than aspirin,” Dr. Talleyrand said. He and other marijuana advocates maintain that it is also safer than methylphenidate (Ritalin), the stimulant prescription drug most often used to treat A.D.H.D. That drug has documented potential side effects including insomnia, depression, facial tics and stunted growth.
Counterintuitive as it may seem, however, patients and doctors have been reporting that marijuana helps alleviate some of the symptoms, particularly the anxiety and anger that so often accompany A.D.H.D. The disorder has been diagnosed in more than 4.5 million children in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In Berkeley, Dr. Frank Lucido said he was questioned by the medical board but ultimately not disciplined after he authorized marijuana for a 16-year-old boy with A.D.H.D. who had tried Ritalin unsuccessfully and was racking up a record of minor arrests.Within a year of the new treatment, he said, the boy was getting better grades and was even elected president of his special-education class. “He was telling his mother: ‘My brain works. I can think,’ ” Dr. Lucido said.
“With any medication, you weigh the benefits against the risks,” he added.
It’s always a thorny discussion when you’re talking about kids and marijuana, because on every parent’s list of nightmares for their kid’s future is “hopeless drug addict”. Our side has the anecdotes about the teenagers who smoke pot and get straight A’s and turn out to be wonderful adults; many of my colleagues speaking on the summer hemp festival circuit publicly trace their cannabis use back to as early as age 12. Then their side has the anecdotes of the teenage doobie puffer who became either a listless slacker or a recovering heroin addict. Both sides have their studies and enough personal accounts to make compelling arguments.
I didn’t try cannabis until I was 22 years old. I wouldn’t recommend its non-medical use by anyone under age 18, even though politically I know that any re-legalization effort will require and age 21 limit. It’s not even that I’m so worried about any physical or mental harm that might befall a teenage pot smoker. It’s more that I think those teenage years are when your personality and character are formed. You’re experiencing so many emotions for the first time – love, jealousy, anger, frustration, accomplishment, loneliness, and so on – these things should be felt fully and unaltered.
However, I say this as a teenage drinker. I first drank at age 16. I blunted many good and bad times with alcohol, up until, not-coincidentally, I first smoked marijuana. Looking back, alcohol led to far worse outcomes for me as a teen than had I been a marijuana user… assuming I wouldn’t have gotten caught. So I’m always curious about our society that is so quick to demonize the idea of teenagers smoking reefer when teenage use of alcohol seems pervasive and socially encouraged. Couple that with our pediatricians who seem more than willing to throw powerful pharmaceuticals at every troubled teen and I’m left perplexed.
In this case, I trust the doctors who are carefully treating young patients, like Dr. Frank Lucido in this story, or Dr. Lester Grinspoon, who helped his young son through cancer treatments with cannabis.
So happy I read this articles and the comments, except david oliver i would ask you to use your brain if you had one. I would think parents who do their research about medications their doctors prescribe would much prefer Cannabis to the stimulants and amphetamines usually prescribed for ADD/ADHD. Its ridiculous that the latter is common practice. No child should ever be given these drugs especially for long term treatment. amphetamines permanently damage dopamine receptors and stimulate the “Reward Pathway”, which is truly where the gateway drug theory applies. These kids who are being prescribed amphetamines (stimulants whatever its all the same crap) are being told how dangerous these drugs are by “drug abuse resistance” programs, and then they go home and pop a pill version of the junk. What are these kids supposed to think about drug abstinence? The system is flawed my friends, and only the people who have experienced it first hand can do something about it. You don’t have to protest in the street. Just when you hear somebody talking out their butt about these types of issues (oliver), feel free to chyme in with your overwhelming knowledge about how the world really works
Wow – reading this has really confirmed what I have known for a long time.
I was diagnosed with ADD \ ADHD frmo a very young age. Given a strict diet and sent to many councillors. The ADD mixed with ADHD bought about anger issues as a young person. By the time I was 12 I had already been sent on camps and foster homes as my mother was a single parent & couldn’t deal with myself & by sister both being ADD & ADHD. Not long after the age of 12 I had no choice but to move to my fathers or risked being in jail or off the rails. Up until the age of 15 these problems kept on but with no police thank god. Mostly I was prescribed Dextroamphetamine – which is basically speed cut with some other stuff and the side affects were insane including loss of sleep. However at the age of 15 I was given my first cone by a family member. It was noted almost right away that my thinking was more rational, my personality better and more friendly. I am now 31 and have been using it since. However – I am an IT professional and have been since I was 19. I am consistently required to learn new technology and that is where the ADHD & ADD come in to their own. Of course my use of weed is never before or during work, but after. It allows me to sleep correctly, slow the thinking and if the weeds good enough – stop it so I can sleep even better again. I left school before finding it and later tried to finished secondary school but I had already gained real work experience in IT so I never did finish. Later I figured out why I didn’t ever do good at school and that is the ADD part where I also have a learning disability. I learn by doing and since a computer gives you direct and instant feed back it responds to the ADHD part. So IT work in the end proved to be great and all the teachers saying to get off the computer really didn’t understand what was going on. Plus – 130k a year is awesome pay – all thanks to ADD & ADHD plus being able to tame it with weed when required. Before this – I was on my way to jail. Also for my final bit of this comment – I have many read that weed is a gateway drug. I think not. In my personal experience it is more social impacts that might have a smoker try something else. For me – since I was pretty much given speed in tablet form I have tried the drug to see what would happen, the outcome was the same as the Dextroamphetamine!! Yay. I also experimented with lsd once but it all had nothing to do with smoking. It had to do with my social group at the time and others trying it and it making me wonder what the experience was like. And now at 31 all I do is have my weed, I dont even carry a packet of cigs on me! Also just to shine a little light on ADD + ADHD – I once pegged a doctor about it and got a decent reply. The reason why to this day doctors do not know all about ADD & ADHD is those with have different brain chemicals between the left and right side of the bring (Well for me) and the Dextroamphetamine was meant to even it out. But the affects was like being someone else and watching from outside your body. Give me my weed any day over something made in a lab! :)
Maridol is THC in pill form. It is not used for ADHD. :(
I have been ADHD since I can remember I was once on a pill for it and although it turned me into a zombified little 8 year old that basically couldn’t have a thought for herself it did not improve my grades in school and my parents took me off of it(which I am grateful for)as a way to get back at the teachers who failed me even though to them my grades weren’t good but they wern’t woth failing me over. After that school stayed an issue for me and I struggled every year then when I was a freshman in high school one of the first projects in my health class was to be asinged a drug and research it and then present it to the class. I had also struggled with extreme insomina (I believe to be related to my ADHD) so when I was given marijuana as my drug to research I had plenty of time to do so.I believe I visited almost every website there was during my sleepless nights. After learning all the postives I thought I would give marijuana I try and what would you know I finally had a regular bedtime of 9-10 o’clock every night and then my grade improved ,I am not saying I was making straight A’s in all my classes but I was doing way better than just passing . And then (because I am heavier set) I began to eat regular meals instead of like once a day and I started to lose weight which improved my self image and then I started having a social life…..marijauna turned me into a perfectly functional member of society and for that I will not go back to anything over the counter it was put here on this earth for more than one reason and its natural why do you have to hate the gifts that god give you? And the only reason I am not smoking right now is because I just had a baby and social services is jumping down my throat……Let me tell you I feel like a horrible mother sober. I can’t wait until I can get my life back. Thank you for this website it truly makes me feel better that I am not the only one who feels this way. Hang strong my freinds we will see the day!!
I have self madicated my ADHD with marijuana for 18 years. I have found that only the best ganja with high amounts of THC work for treating ADHD. Im sure there is some science to this but my expirience is the stronger the head trip the better the medicine. Body buzz pot may be good for back pain but useless in ADHD treatment. Every time in my life that I have had to stop smoking for one reason or another I start having major life problems (school work, traffic tickets, conficlts with loved ones, deminished job performance, I could go on forever). Recently I have had scares with lung/throat bugs that just wont go away so I am currently suffering without my perfect ADHD treatment Pay cuts from this economy and a 2nd child on the way have made it all but impossible to afford any pot let alone $60 for am eigth, one weeks supply (roughly $3,000 dollars a year for something I could easily grow on my 7 acres). Fortunately my wife, who completely notices the improvements in my life when Im on pot, is very understanding. I pay a ton of money on health care and this medication isnt even an option in my corrupt/ignorant state of MA. I mean really how much science is involved in putting high quality ground marijuana in time release capsules (copyright by me =P). Just let me grow the damn stuff so I can eat it, for pennies not thousands of dollars, and live relatively ADHD symptom free and side effect free. For those of you who don’t understand how marijuana could help someone focus read the German driving study that proved marijuana has an atypical effect on the ADHD, brain causing it to focus better rather than focus better. Gee why would speed (ritalin) calm down a hyperactive kid isnt that also an opposite? The real problem is marijuana is a million maybe billion dollar cash crop if it were legal that profit would be miniscule (I would simple grow it). Get your head out of the sand America.
i am an Australian 19 year old male and i was diagnosed with severe ADD at the age of 11. I was medicated with dexamphetamine and i now regret that i was ever put on the drug. I became incredibly anxious which led to many trips to the dentist from heavy grinding and enamel erosion. When i didnt feel like a withdrawn blank void incapable of social interaction, i struggled with obsessive and negative thoughts that eventually led to decreased performance in school and further anxiety. i also lost my appetite to the point that i would feel physically ill at the thought of food. and what good did it all do me? i became a conformist drone that obeyed every social convention and lost touch with my real self. i began using cannabis infrequently at 17 and have found that through its use i became much calmer and is helping deal with my anxiety aswell as contributing to more positive thinking about my self and those around me. i also have found that it has helped me reassess my character and get back a part of myself that i had once sadly considered lost to the past.\
I agree however that the teen years are an important time in a persons development and teen cannabis use can, for some people, lead to de-motivation and the transformation into a lazy couch bandit.