Schools Concerned About Student Accessibility to Marijuana Products

Area school districts are concerned the new legalization of marijuana may make it more available to teenagers, but most say their school policies are strong enough to withstand problems.

While marijuana is still not legal for people under the age of 21, the product is available in several forms, including gummies, THC, and vape cartridges. But vapes already are an issue for school districts, which can also contain nicotine.

In Ohio, tobacco products are not legal for people under the age of 21, so high school students who are caught with vapes can be disciplined under the district’s Code of Conduct.

According to a November 2023 survey from the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control, the percentage of students using nicotine products dropped from 16.5% in 2022 to 12.6% in 2023, mostly due to a decrease in the number of kids using e-cigarettes. But those products remain the most popular among teenagers, with 7.7% of the students who use nicotine products using e-cigarettes.

The Ohio School Board Association is continuing to tell schools that under federal law, schools are drug-free workplaces, and Federal law still labels marijuana as an illegal drug.

Ohioans Vote to Legalize Recreational Marijuana by Passing Issue 2

Recreational marijuana will soon be legal in Ohio after voters passed Issue 2. The proposed law passed with 56.79% of the vote, or 2.144 million voters out of nearly 3.8 million who had cast ballots in the race.

Issue 2 legalizes and regulates the cultivation, manufacturing, testing and the sale of marijuana to Ohioans 21 and up. It also legalizes home grow for Ohioans 21 and up with a limit of six plants per person and 12 plants per residence, and imposes a 10% tax at the point of sale for each transaction.

Ohio is the 24th state to legalize recreational use marijuana. Recreational marijuana remains illegal at the federal level and it is a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substance Act.

More than half of the United States population now lives in a jurisdiction where the possession and use of marijuana is legal, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Issue 2 establishes the Division of Cannabis Control within the Ohio Department of Commerce which will “regulate, investigate, and penalize adult use cannabis operators, adult use testing laboratories and individuals required to be licensed.”

New Federal Data Offers Snapshot of America’s Substance Use Crisis, Mental Health Needs

On Monday, HHS and SAMHSA released the results of the latest National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). The report provides population-level intelligence about the behavioral health needs providers and policymakers must address.

The new survey data set shows that illicit substance use among adults in the U.S. is on the rise. However, this has not yet translated into increased rates of what researchers could classify as substance use disorder (SUD), which remained stable in 2022.

The NSDUH surveys people ages 12 and older. Researchers completed 71,369 interviews for a nationally representative data set in 2022. Year over year, the data show few dramatic increases or decreases in self-reported use of tobacco, alcohol, and illicit substance use; substance use disorders; mental health conditions; suicidal thoughts and behaviors; and substance use and mental health treatment.

SAMHSA: Only 8 States Have ‘Well-Developed’ Value-Based Care Initiatives for Addiction Treatment

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) finds that meaningful development of value-based care policies for addiction treatment among the states is a rarity.

Only eight states have “well-developed and ongoing” initiatives for addiction treatment, according to a new report released Monday.

Twenty-four states had quality performance initiatives in their Medicaid programs, while 20 had low or no evidence of value-based care policies.

The report was short on specific care-focused outcomes, citing “a lack of data on the impact of [value-based care] on clinical outcomes.”

It did say that value-based care models allow providers flexibility and enable “person-centered” care.