Some Calif. Doctors Recommend Medical Marijuana for Kids

Some teenagers with psychiatric conditions like attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have become medical-marijuana users in California, the New York Times reported Nov. 22.

Some Bay Area physicians have recommended marijuana to their adolescent patients, and the operator of Oakland’s MediCann clinic network estimates that staffers have provided medical marijuana to around 50 users ages 14 to 18. Another patients collective, the Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana in Santa Cruz, has 24 minors among its clients.

Supporters say that marijuana is safer than Ritalin for treating ADHD and helps relieve the anxiety and anger associated with the disease. Critics object not only to the notion of giving young patients marijuana as medicine but also note that marijuana use disrupts attention, memory and concentration — all problems for people with ADHD. “How many ways can one say ’one of the worst ideas of all time?’ ” said Stephen Hinshaw, the chairman of the psychology department at the University of California at Berkeley. 

Medical-marijuana patients under age 18 must have a parent present when seeing a doctor or visiting a dispensary. Anecdotally, some California doctors said they think there are parents who authorize medical use of the drug so their children don’t buy the drugs on the street.