Prescribing marijuana to kids

Debate is raging over the use of medicinal marijuana to treat childhood ADHD and autism

prescribing marijuana
(Image credit: (Corbis/Gerd Ludwig))

The battle over medical marijuana has a new focus: children. After some parents confessed to feeding kids as young as 9 pot-infused cookies as a last resort to help them cope with autism, The New York Times reported that California clinics have been prescribing pot to patients as young as 14 to treat ADHD symptoms. Proponents of cannabis for kids say it can also help treat cancer and AIDS symptoms. Opponents? “How many ways can one say ‘one of the worst ideas of all time?’” asks UC Berkeley psychologist Stephen Hinshaw. Is there ever a valid reason to prescribe pot for kids? (Watch one family’s success treating autism with marijuana.)

This takes a defensible idea too far: Doctors should be given leeway to treat their patients as they see best, says Nathaniel French in the Southern Methodist University Daily Campus, including—where legal—with medical marijuana. “But there are limits to that liberality,” and giving pot to minors crosses the line. “We do not let children smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol; why should we let them take a mind-altering drug”?

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