Pot, teenagers, and the psych ward

[nursingaround1]

I spent two years in a psych ward - and not as an inpatient. Due to the ward being in small city in New Zealand, we had it all - mildly unwell, dangerously unwell, old, young, and even some children, although the oldest I ever looked after was 14yrs. We also didn't have very many men working there, and I was one of 3 guys working there. It was because of this reason, they often gave me the teenage males to look after.

Johnno (not his real name) wouldn't speak to me for my first month, because he didn't trust me. He didn't trust anyone, but how can you trust anything when you hear hairy legs patter across the hardwood floor, and see thousands of spiders crawling towards your bed, and then feel them biting you. He was only 16yrs old, and this was his life.

After a year working with Johnno, he trusted me, and talked to me, although 'talking' doesn't really explain it. His bursts of laughter would often be interrupted by bouts of laughter. I used to ask him what he was laughing at, but I was told not to do this, as asking about his hallucinations apparently reinforced his belief in them. Which makes it kinda tricky, because sometimes having a little glimpse of what's going on in his head does give you some idea of how bizarre his world is.

'There's a black demon with red eyes and he says you're a C...' The first time he told me this, I resisted the urge to look over my shoulder, but I couldn't stop the goosebumps or chill down my spine.

Poor Johnno started smoking Pot at the age of 14, and was first admitted to the unit at the age of 15. In 3yrs time, he'd never been free of his hallucinations, and probably never will be. All we'll do is give him more drugs to relax him, so the demons don't bother him so much, and then given more drugs to counter the extra-pyramidal side effects of such strong anti-psychotics.

I looked after a worrying number of teenagers there because of Pot. They say growing minds are vulnerable, and it makes sense. What worries me now is that scientist now say the brain doesn't finish developing until people are 25yrs old.

Yet it's legal for teenagers to smoke pot in some places.

They believe it's harmless.

I regularly talk to the students at my schools, and many do believe it's harmless as well.

What scary is the growing number of adults who believe it's harmless.

Another patient I looked after turned out to be my friend, Pete. I'd known Pete through high school, and he was always the calm guy who didn't drink, so we often used him as our sober driver. It's only now, as an inpatient, I realize we had a stoned driver instead. I realize now why he drove so carefully, so slowly.

I'd lost contact with Pete in the last couple of years, but he'd gotten a job killing chickens, so I'm not surprised he fired up a spliff several times a day with a job like that. He had started to believe the TV and Radio were beaming instructions into his head, and eventually convinced himself he was the Messiah. Fortunately he came right, but he can never smoke again, and will not risk drinking.

It might have helped that he stopped killing chickens for a living.

Anyway, not sure what my point is, just thought I'd share some experiences from the psych ward, but before I go, I can't help leave with one last, controversial statement:

Pot is an insidious, creeping poison that destroys youth, but society chooses to be blind to it, because 'what I do in my own house, doesn't hurt anybody else, so don't tell me what to do.'

[jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B]

I am not a huge pot fan. However, the same can be said about a ton of drugs that people use illegally. Interestingly, there's a whole lot of not typical things kids are using to get high. Gasoline (crocodiling) allergy pills mixed with anti-freeze, mouthwash for the ETOH effects...

Kids are shooting up, snorting and otherwise consuming a whole bunch of other things....that can and do cause a whole lot of harm. Any number of things that are found in typical homes, at grocery stores, or in a medicine cabinet.

Pot can be pot and may be considered "socially acceptable" but I often wonder with along with pot, what else a kid is getting into....or getting into as opposed to pot?

Kids can be mentally ill. And it may not have a thing to do with pot smoking. It could however, be organic brain damage as a result of snorting all kinds of dangerous foolishness up their noses for years. That can look like mental illness too.

A pot dispensary is perhaps not selling to kids. Adults who procure for kids--same goes for adults who buy ETOH for kids....sick stuff. So kids are purchasing this stuff somewhere. How about a crackdown on the dealers who take kids money and sell them pot or any other drug?

[Dogen]

One of our major social follies in the 1970s was getting rid of institutional environments that may be the only way to keep the lives of some manageable.

What have you been smoking? The reason we moved toward deinstitutionalization is because mental institutions were fetid, cruel prisons where people who were mentally ill or intellectually or physically disabled were warehoused. The plan was to move public money from supporting institutions to community mental health centers (CMHC), allowing people to live real human lives rather than be hidden away to rot. It wasn't even a bad plan, it was just poorly implemented.

No one knew how to care for these patients in the community, but they put more effort into getting them out of the institutions than setting up the CMHCs. When Medicaid was introduced it funded huge increases in mental health beds in LTCs. A variety of approaches were developed into the mid-70s, some of which had promise, but by then they'd been pushing people out and closing down institutions for a decade, and for many people the damage was done. They were lost to the street, often ending up warehoused once more as part of the criminal justice system. Then the 80s hit, and Reagan cut funding to social services by 30 percent, switching from direct funding of CMHCs to block grants that states could divvy up, and who were often less keen to fund CMHCs. By the 1990s we'd basically taken a good idea, managed it badly, defunded it, made it harder to be re-funded, and then pretended like it was a bad idea all along... meanwhile we essentially left the people to fend for themselves on the streets and in jails.

The funny thing is we're now going back to the CMHC model, often through FQHC (federal) funding. So, 40 years later we're going back to the beginning. Well, the middle. Because institutions were terrible, awful, brutal ideas of how to treat people.

[Red Kryptonite]

I don't have to see footage of it, I live here. Seeing people smoking on the street is very common and it really doesn't bother me.

Funny how when it's cigarettes, it's a terrible evil that must be stamped out by any means. But when it's pot, suddenly smoking becomes totally cool.

[malamud69, BSN, RN]

The real issue...as described by the OP is "killing chickens"

[Miss Rayanne]

Funny how when it's cigarettes, it's a terrible evil that must be stamped out by any means. But when it's pot, suddenly smoking becomes totally cool.

Do you really think I freak out when I see people smoke cigarettes on the street? At this point, marijuana does not cause the amount of deaths that tobacco does. Personally, I don't worry about things that have no effect on my life, like someone enjoying cannabis in a responsible manner.

[RNperdiem, RN]

If you watch too much news, you can get a distorted picture of the world.

Lots of teens and young people don't smoke weed. Flip all the statistics upside down. If a certain percentage of people do something, then there are plenty who don't. It isn't as newsworthy, but all around you are young people going to the movies with their friends, going to school and staying out of trouble. There are lots of non-drug users, non-drinkers out there.

[Been there,done that, ASN, RN]

You must have just taken a creative writing course. I would suggest continuing with creative writing 201.

"It might have helped that he stopped killing chickens for a living.":roflmao:

[heron, ASN, RN]

It makes no sense to me to obsess over this or that substance. In my opinion, the choice of which substance we're demonizing this week has little to do with its intrinsic capacity to do damage.

It's a cliche to point out that our cultural drugs of choice are alcohol, sugar, shopping and sex.

I hear the OPs concerns that exposure to pot can trigger schizophrenic changes in vulnerable teens. That may well be true ... but I don't think legal age limits accomplishes much by way of really restricting access. I think we should have them, but let's be honest about the fact that they function mainly as a "hook" to allow law enforcement to step in. I don't believe they restrict access in any real way at all.

Maybe it's because I came of age when Reefer Madness was thought to be an effective intervention, but I just don't see the serial criminalization of socially marginal mood altering chemicals as good mental health policy.

[Nursynursenurse, ADN, RN]

I think the worst damage pot does is make chronic users non-functional in society. This may be based only on the people I've known but I've known a lot of smokers. That cant hold down jobs, have little motivation to be successful, and get paranoid over stupid things. They always have the story to tell about "that one guy" who smokes and has a successful, high paying career. I've never met that guy. The majority of users seem to become very content with having nothing in life. Like it makes their self-made crappy lives tolerable. They give a long passionate speeches on all the reasons the economy is against them and why they cant finish school or get a decent job. They claim pot has nothing to do with it and that it has helped them in all these wonderful ways.

[Red Kryptonite]

I think the worst damage pot does is make chronic users non-functional in society. This may be based only on the people I've known but I've known a lot of smokers. That cant hold down jobs, have little motivation to be successful, and get paranoid over stupid things. They always have the story to tell about "that one guy" who smokes and has a successful, high paying career. I've never met that guy. The majority of users seem to become very content with having nothing in life. Like it makes their self-made crappy lives tolerable. They give a long passionate speeches on all the reasons the economy is against them and why they cant finish school or get a decent job. They claim pot has nothing to do with it and that it has helped them in all these wonderful ways.

Yep, my experience too.

Putting aside the morality of allowing a substance to run your life, my kids are smart, ambitious, motivated people. The main reason I don't want them smoking pot is because I don't want them transformed into gormless dumbasses with no goals.

[heron, ASN, RN]

I think the worst damage pot does is make chronic users non-functional in society. This may be based only on the people I've known but I've known a lot of smokers. That cant hold down jobs, have little motivation to be successful, and get paranoid over stupid things. They always have the story to tell about "that one guy" who smokes and has a successful, high paying career. I've never met that guy. The majority of users seem to become very content with having nothing in life. Like it makes their self-made crappy lives tolerable. They give a long passionate speeches on all the reasons the economy is against them and why they cant finish school or get a decent job. They claim pot has nothing to do with it and that it has helped them in all these wonderful ways.

Most of the alcohol drinkers in my life are the same way.

[rnmaybe]

not what I asked.

The possession of marijuana is illegal per federal law and in 46 states. If you caught with it, you can be put in jail. Also, all males above the age of 18 must register for selective service. We might have not drafted them since Vietnam, but it is always possible it can happen again. In my opinion, if they are old enough to possibly be sent to a war, then they are old enough for the to smoke a joint.