A psychiatrist at Washington University said there is a rise in cases of young people unknowingly smoking marijuana laced with fentanyl.
Dr. Michael Wenzinger, a staff psychiatrist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, said some of his patients’ toxicology results have shown fentanyl in their system when “they thought they were just smoking marijuana,” Fox News reported.
Illicit forms of fentanyl come to the United States mainly from Mexico and China, according to a DEA report. Drug traffickers lace marijuana, cocaine, and illicit pills with fentanyl because it’s a cheap way to add addictive qualities to keep their customers coming back, ABC News reported. The powerful drug is now the top cause of overdose deaths in the country.
This is not just being seen in Wenzinger’s office, and it is not a new phenomenon. In 2021, the Connecticut Department of Public Health issued a warning that 39 cases of overdoses in 2021 were related to individuals who had reportedly just been smoking marijuana.
In one of those overdose cases, police were able to obtain a sample of the marijuana, which tested positive for fentanyl.
“This is the first lab-confirmed case of marijuana with fentanyl in Connecticut and possibly the first confirmed case in the United States,” said DPH Commissioner Manisha Juthani, M.D.
Death is a serious concern associated with fentanyl-laced marijuana. Wenzinger said smoking marijuana in general can pose serious mental health concerns for teens and young adults, such as the development of schizophrenia. A study estimated that “the proportion of preventable cases of schizophrenia” in young men aged 21-30 “related to cannabis use disorder may be as high as 30%.”
“People with cannabis use disorder are unable to stop using cannabis despite it causing negative consequences in their lives,” the study explained.
Wenzinger said parents need to talk with their kids.
”The marijuana they may be used to from their childhood is not what we’re dealing with now,” Wenzinger told Fox News. “We’re dealing with an almost different ballgame of potency.”
From 1995 to 2014, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) — the chemical in marijuana which makes someone ‘high’ — has increased in potency by 200%, according to a study conducted by the National Institutes of Health.
Last December, Missouri became the most recent state to legalize the recreational use of marijuana for those over 21, beginning in February. With an increase in social acceptance of the drug, Wenzinger said its use among teens has gone up.
Just a month ago, a school district in the Greater St. Louis Area released a notice to parents reminding them not to smoke the recreational drug while picking their kids up from school. The Francis Howell School District said it has seen an increase in adults smoking marijuana on campus.
WATCH: Former Trump Official: Biden’s Border Rules Let Chinese Fentanyl into U.S.
Matt Perdie / Breitbart News
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