{"id":2950,"date":"2021-08-17T10:21:11","date_gmt":"2021-08-17T00:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/high-thc-cannabis-concentrates-and-their-scary-effect-on-the-teenage-brain\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T21:02:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T10:02:06","slug":"high-thc-cannabis-concentrates-and-their-scary-effect-on-the-teenage-brain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/high-thc-cannabis-concentrates-and-their-scary-effect-on-the-teenage-brain\/","title":{"rendered":"High-THC Cannabis Concentrates and Their (Scary) Effect on the Teenage Brain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Denver Health\u2019s substance treatment program sees roughly 500 youths each year for substance abuse, and Thurstone says 95 percent of the referrals he gets are for marijuana, which, despite popular opinion, has been proven to be addictive. Concentrates, with their higher THC levels, may be even more so. But it\u2019s not just the standard trappings of dependence that are worrisome to health care professionals; it\u2019s also that they\u2019re observing a correlation between cannabis concentrates and mental health issues, such as depression, suicidal ideation, psychosis, and schizophrenia, as well as disturbing physical conditions such as cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, characterized by severe vomiting.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is, of course, illegal in Colorado for anyone under 21 without a red card to purchase or use cannabis. The reality is that according to data from the state\u2019s 2019 Healthy Kids Colorado Survey<\/a>, 20.6 percent of Centennial State high schoolers and 5.2 percent of middle schoolers say they have used marijuana in the past 30 days. Those numbers haven\u2019t changed much over the years, but one critical statistic has: The same survey found that between 2015 and 2019, the percentage of high schoolers who had recently dabbed (translation: inhaled concentrated doses of vaporized cannabis) went from 5.7 percent to 10.2 percent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scary thing about this,\u201d says Dr. Christian Hopfer, an addiction psychiatrist at UCHealth\u2019s Center for Dependency, Addiction, and Rehabilitation<\/a> (CeDAR), \u201cis that this is a relatively recent phenomenon. We don\u2019t know much about how extremely high doses of THC affect people, children or adults. We\u2019re seeing greater risks of psychotic disorders and serious effects to cognition in our kids, but we have no real understanding of what these concentrates do to the developing brain.\u201d That is why so many different stakeholders\u2014doctors, researchers, legislators, psychologists, school districts, advocacy groups, and parents\u2014have been throwing up flares. Their question: Are you sure your kids aren\u2019t dabbing?<\/em><\/p>\n

Marijuana might be the most synonymized noun in the world, but dabbing has a language all its own. Trust us, your kids know the lingo; you should, too.<\/p>\n

Concentrates:<\/strong> Broadly refers to any cannabis product that has been made through a process where extraneous plant matter is mostly removed, leaving behind only aromatic oils called terpenes and cannabinoids, like cannabidiol (CBD) and THC<\/p>\n

Dabbing:<\/strong> The method of flash-vaporizing cannabis concentrates\u2014typically extracted oils of varying consistencies\u2014on a hot surface and inhaling them to get high<\/p>\n

Dab rig:<\/strong> Also called an oil rig, this is a water pipe\u2014essentially, a sophisticated glass bong\u2014that has attachments specifically designed for dabs of marijuana concentrate<\/p>\n

Dabber:<\/strong> Sometimes called a wand, this is a small tool used to pick up a dab of concentrate and place it on the heated surface of a dab rig<\/p>\n

Vape pens:<\/strong> Much like e-cigarettes, these are portable, pen-shaped vaporizers that are typically refillable with cartridges of concentrates<\/p>\n

Dabs:<\/strong> A catch-all word for any concentrate or extract that can be flash-vaporized and inhaled<\/p>\n

E-nail:<\/strong> A dabbing device that electronically heats the nail<\/p>\n

Extracts:<\/strong> A specific type of concentrate made using solvents, like alcohol, butane, propane, or CO2; all extracts are concentrates, but not all concentrates are extracts<\/p>\n

Hash:<\/strong> A pressed cannabis concentrate\u2014made without using solvents\u2014of the plant\u2019s sticky glands that is commonly smoked and vaped but can also be dabbed<\/p>\n

Nail:<\/strong> The metal, glass, or ceramic spike attached to a water pipe; dabs are applied to the nail once it has been heated up electronically or with a torch<\/p>\n

Torch:<\/strong> A handheld butane or propane torch often used to heat the nail of a dab rig; a jet lighter also works<\/p>\n

 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Types of Cannabis Concentrates<\/strong><\/p>\n

Concentrates and extracts don\u2019t look like bud, get packaged like bud, or smell quite like bud, making them somewhat easier to conceal. Here, a not-at-all-comprehensive inventory of products that could be hiding in your teenager\u2019s nightstand.<\/p>\n

\"Graphical<\/p>\n

Photo by Matthew Stacey. Photo illustration by Sean Parsons<\/p>\n

Shatter<\/strong>: An amber-colored extract that has a transparent, stiff, glasslike quality and breaks easily
Typically used with:<\/strong> a dab rig<\/p>\n

Sugar<\/strong>: An extract that comes in a wide range of colors\u2014very light yellow to almost amber\u2014and has the consistency of wet, sappy sugar
Typically used with:<\/strong> a dab rig<\/p>\n

Budder<\/strong>: A dark yellow extract that has a creamy, butterlike texture
Typically used with:<\/strong> a dab rig<\/p>\n

Live Rosin<\/strong>: A high-quality solventless extract, usually pale yellow to golden in color with a gooey, honeylike consistency
Typically used with:<\/strong> a dab rig, a glass bowl, a joint, or a concentrates vape pen<\/p>\n

Crumble<\/strong>: An extract that can be yellow, orange, or light brown and that has a soft, crumbly texture
Typically used with:<\/strong> a dab rig or sprinkled over flower in joints, pipes, and bongs<\/p>\n

Wax<\/strong>: An extract that has a soft, waxy consistency
Typically used with:<\/strong> a dab rig or a concentrates vape pen<\/p>\n

Distillate<\/strong>: A potent cannabis oil extract that has been stripped of all materials and compounds except for certain cannabinoids, like THC or CBD
Typically used with:<\/strong> a concentrates vape pen (with refillable cartridges)<\/p>\n

Tell-Tale Signs That Your Kids Might Be Using Concentrates<\/strong><\/p>\n

Just because you think<\/em> your teenagers don\u2019t have the wherewithal to buy concentrates\u2014much less a dab rig\u2014doesn\u2019t mean they can\u2019t improvise ways to do both. If you\u2019ve been finding soda cans or water bottles cut in half; if you\u2019re missing butter knives from your drawers; if you\u2019ve found unwound paperclips; if you can\u2019t find your cr\u00e8me br\u00fbl\u00e9e torch\u2026your 15-year-old might be more resourceful than you realize. All of these items can be used to fashion a homemade dab rig. \u201cYou need to be paying attention to these things,\u201d says Denver Health\u2019s Dr. Christian Thurstone. \u201cIt\u2019s reasonable that if you see something funny that you trust your gut and investigate.\u201d What else should you be looking for? Lighters, small glass or silicone jars, and parchment sheets can be clues your kid is using. Money or sellable items that go missing are other hints. \u201cA lot of parents struggle with parenting teens, especially when it comes to privacy,\u201d says CeDAR\u2019s Dr. Christian Hopfer. \u201cIf you\u2019re concerned, privacy should not be respected, especially if there are mental health concerns. Parents are often unwilling to play cop\u2014and that can have tragic consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Your (Kid\u2019s) Brain On THC<\/strong><\/p>\n

The human brain isn\u2019t fully developed until roughly age 25. When THC is introduced to that still-evolving organ, it impacts how neural connections are made. As one Colorado doctor put it, \u201cthe brain only gets one shot at growing up,\u201d and THC can stunt that growth in ways we already know\u2014and likely in many others that we don\u2019t. (See also ALL Young Cannabis Users Face Psychosis<\/a> <\/strong>and  Cannabis & Suicide \u2013 Causal & Correlate?<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n

Here’ what <\/strong>(some of) the available science says about young people and cannabis.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Because the federal government classifies cannabis as a Schedule I drug, studying marijuana in the United States is a difficult\u2014and frustrating\u2014endeavor. Universities that rely on federal funding are loath to risk losing that cash to research marijuana on campus. Furthermore, any institution that does want to study cannabis must go through the feds to procure product; however, the cannabis grown at federally designated facilities rarely has THC concentrations higher than five or 10 percent. \u201cThere is a large body of research about what lower THC concentrations do and don\u2019t impact,\u201d says Dr. Sam Wang, a pediatric emergency medicine doctor at Children\u2019s Hospital Colorado who is also board certified in medical toxicology. \u201cBut there is a paucity of literature about the impacts of high-THC doses on health.\u201d Still, many health professionals say the results from the research that does exist with regard to addiction as well as high concentrations of THC are disturbing enough to merit red-flag warnings for youngsters. Local experts pointed us to several studies for a bit of light reading.<\/p>\n

In March 2021<\/strong>, JAMA Pediatrics <\/em>published the results of an addiction study executed by National Institute on Drug Abuse<\/a> scientists. The research examined the proportion of adolescents and young adults who had developed substance use disorders (SUDs) in the previous year at various intervals since they first used certain drugs, including cannabis. The findings? Marijuana users between 12 and 17 had nearly double the prevalence (10.7 percent) of SUDs one year after first using cannabis compared with adolescents who first used alcohol (5.6 percent) or nicotine (6.6 percent). After three years, the addiction rate for cannabis among adolescents was 20.1 percent; it was 10.9 percent for those ages 18 to 25. The data, says the National Institutes of Health, emphasize the vulnerability of young teenagers to developing SUDs.<\/p>\n

A mostly Europe-based study<\/strong> that aimed to identify patterns of cannabis use with the strongest effect on developing psychotic disorders received a lot of attention when it was published in the Lancet<\/a> in March 2019. The conclusions were disturbing. Daily cannabis use was associated with higher likelihoods of psychotic disorders compared with people who had never used marijuana, but those numbers rose to nearly five times increased odds for daily use of high-THC types of cannabis. Another disconcerting finding: Those who had started using high-concentration cannabis by age 15 showed a doubling of risk of psychotic disorders compared with those who had never used.<\/p>\n

Researchers in the United Kingdom published<\/strong> a study about the impacts of high-THC cannabis<\/a> in JAMA Psychiatry<\/em> in May 2020. The question they posed: Does high-THC cannabis increase risks for problems resulting from cannabis use, common mental disorders, and psychotic experiences, after controlling for early-life mental health symptoms and frequency of use? The short answer is yes. Of the 1,087 participants who reported cannabis use in the previous year, use of high-THC cannabis was associated with a significant increase in the frequency of cannabis use, likelihood of cannabis-related problems, and rates of anxiety disorder.<\/p>\n

Are there fallacies about pot\u2019s addictive qualities?<\/em><\/strong>
Marijuana is often downplayed for its addictive qualities when compared to other substances of abuse. I often hear from my clients, \u201cI was just smoking pot.\u201d THC activates the reward circuitry of our brains in ways that may cause this circuitry to be hijacked. While the effects of marijuana may wear off after just a couple of hours, the half-life of THC is quite long. The half-life of THC for mild users is between one and two days, but THC can still be traced in the system of a mild user for weeks afterward. For those who use cannabis frequently or use higher concentrations of THC, the half-life is between one and two weeks and THC lasts within their systems for much, much longer. This accrual of THC leads to increasing tolerance and the belief that there isn\u2019t much to the withdrawal from cannabis. The higher the THC, the higher the addictive potential. Once the body becomes acclimated to the presence of THC, withdrawal symptoms kick in.<\/p>\n

Withdrawal isn\u2019t the only thing we need to worry about with frequent THC use, right?<\/em><\/strong>
Moderate to severe cannabis use is associated with reductions in two measures of intelligence and cognitive ability: working memory and processing speed. More research is needed to definitively state whether these reductions are permanent or temporary in adolescents or young adults. For adolescents who use cannabis, however, there are studies that show that these reductions are permanent and don\u2019t recover in adulthood, even if they stop using.<\/p>\n

This Wasn\u2019t In The Parenting Manual<\/strong>
\u201cThe first time my son got suspended from school, I remember his coach said to me, \u2018Don\u2019t be too hard on him; it\u2019s just pot.\u2019 He said that because my son was an athlete and a good kid. He was just 14. But within two months, my son exited his life. He became a different human being. His joie de vivre was impacted. One day I got in a fight with him about not showing up to school, and I said, \u2018I think this is the pot. You have to stop.\u2019 He said, \u2018If I have to stop smoking pot, I\u2019m going to kill myself. In fact, I\u2019m going to kill myself right now.\u2019 He went to his room and locked the door. I called the police for help, and it was a cop who told me I needed to be very concerned about his marijuana use. He said, \u2018It\u2019s not like what you smoked when you were younger.\u2019 That\u2019s how I learned about dabbing. My son was a fun, sweet, supersensitive kid. Then he wanted to be in his room all the time. He was buying shatter and wax through a senior with a medical card. They did it over Snapchat. One night after he came home from work\u2014he got a job at 15\u2014he was looking for something<\/em> in the backyard shed. He was crying. He told me he used to have fun before drugs, but now he only had fun when he was doing drugs\u2026 But then he developed cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome; he was just vomiting all the time. I took him to the ER 11 times in nine months. Eventually we found a doctor who said, \u2018This is the pot.\u2019 He looked at her and said, \u2018This is medicine!\u2019 He stopped because of the hyperemesis, but his executive functioning has been impacted and there are cognitive issues. I wonder why an 18-year-old can get a medical card and buy two ounces a day but can\u2019t buy tobacco or a Coors Light.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more Reality Check Stories and complete article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Denver Health\u2019s substance treatment program sees roughly 500 youths each year for substance abuse, and Thurstone says 95 percent of the referrals he gets are for marijuana, which, despite popular opinion, has been proven to be addictive. Concentrates, with their higher THC levels, may be even more so. But it\u2019s not just the standard trappings […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[78],"class_list":["post-2950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cannabis-conundrum","tag-cannabis-conundrum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2950\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}