Grad School

I haven't posted in quite a while and I am not sure if anyone even bothers to look here any more.I thought I did owe folks an explanation, in case they drop by again.

The primary reason I am not posting is that I am in online Grad School working on a Masters in Secondary Education. That is consuming all my free time. Two papers a week and participation in online discussions takes time and my creative juices. I am preparing for life after the Coroner's Office (December 2012). I have decided on a career change to what has always been my second choice for a career. I am going to teach high school or middle school, and I am looking forward to the future.

As I told a group of students recently at a career day event I participated in. Never be locked into what you think you are going to do for the rest of life. We really can never be sure what we will "do" "when we grow up".

“Relief-oriented use of marijuana by teens”

That is the title of an article in last April’s Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention and Policy.

While this study in has a very small sample size, it nonetheless presents an interesting point, and one that needs to be taken into account when attempting to limit the use of illicit drugs (and the illicit use of licit drugs) by teens.

…these teens differentiated themselves from recreational users and positioned their use of marijuana for relief by emphasizing their inability to find other ways to deal with their health problems, the sophisticated ways in which they titrated their intake, and the benefits that they experienced…Marijuana is perceived by some teens to be the only available alternative for teens experiencing difficult health problems when medical treatments have failed or when they lack access to appropriate health care.

One of the common reasons for use of illicit drugs is self-medication. Certainly a completely different approach would be needed in these individuals than in recreational users. Likely these folks present a different set of challenges.