Author Spotlight
Emmerson Winfrey
Sitting in Biology class, then-freshman Blake Peters* was overthinking every word that came out of his mouth — the high was pushing his social anxiety into overdrive.
His eyes were bloodshot.
His brain couldn’t process a single arrow in the photosynthesis chart ahead of him.
His marijuana cartridge was still tucked away in his pocket from his last “bathroom” break.
Young Peters had always been an advocate against drugs and alcohol — calling himself a “D.A.R.E kid” — as a product of his parents’ struggles with alcoholism while he was growing up. But, when 13-year-old Peters saw his friend pull out a marijuana cartridge he got from an anonymous app selling marijuana from Missouri to minors, Peters decided to take a risk and try it.
“It felt like I was dreaming — I was like holy s—,” now-senior-Peters said. “That first hit definitely changed my perspective.”
According to East students like Peters, legalization of marijuana in Missouri has made it possible for students to cope with their daily stress with a 10-minute drive across state lines and whispers of what shops don’t I.D.
This creates an uprising of THC cartridges being snuck into students pockets for bathroom breaks in math class or shoved into the bottom of backpacks — all while softening views on the drug and causing an overlook of possible negative side effects, according to administration and law enforcement.
After that first hit, Peters began increasingly using the drug more and eventually every day by the start of his freshman year. He used it to escape. Escape his social anxiety, escape his struggles at home, escape being the “weird new kid.”
“There was so much adding up,” Peters said. “Just everything I didn’t really want to think about anymore and avoidance of actual issues.”
Since the legalization and de-stigmatization around the drug, Peters said it’s “no-big-deal” for high schoolers to use marijuana — even while in school.
Missouri legalized all forms of THC for recreational use — including cartridges and edibles — in February 2022. However, all forms of marijuana are still illegal to possess, use or sell in Kansas.
School Resource Officer and Prairie Village Police Officer Tony Woollen agrees the legalization has softened how people view the drug and usage of it.
Prior to its legalization in Missouri, people had more negative views on the drug, Woollen said. Now he’ll hear students justifying the use of the products with, “Well, it’s legal over there.”
“It’s kind of a new perspective — even though it’s not applicable here — since we’re so close to where it’s legal,” Woollen said.
He also hears students talking about how easy it is to access weed. Students are able to talk freely about anything in his office, and one of those is how much easier marijuana is for them to access now.
Senior Avery Bennett* bought her marijuana through shops that didn’t I.D. in Missouri or sold Delta 8 products to avoid having to I.D. She said she used marijuana cartridges as self-medication for her stress.
Bennett said she couldn’t sleep without THC in her bloodstream, and she used it to ease her anxiety around school. That was, until she leaned over her toilet one night vomiting uncontrollably, grasping her stomach to soothe the piercing abdominal pain. She was rushed to the hospital where she was diagnosed with Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome — a condition caused by long-term use of marijuana. Bennett had never heard of the condition before and upon learning the only cure was to stop using marijuana completely, she was disappointed.
“I barely ate for two weeks because I was so nauseous all the time, even on prescribed nausea meds,” Bennett said.
Her self-medicating coping mechanism turned into her worst enemy in just a few hours.
In an Instagram poll of 219 East students, 29% percent said they have possessed marijuana before, and 18% said they have used it at school.
Principal Jason Peres said after access to THC vape pens, or cartridges, became more accessible, he noticed it became more prevalent at East.
“I think vaping itself has become more popular, because it’s easy to conceal and doesn’t smell like marijuana,” Peres said. “And I think because of that we have seen an uptick in THC, because that’s now included in vape pens.”
Peres also agrees with Woollen that the legalization has changed students’ perspectives on the drug.
Legalization on the drug made students more apt to use since it’s been lessened in the criminal justice system and treated more like alcohol than an illegal substance in our state, Peres said.
“They don’t pursue it as a crime like they did, and I think that does give a green light to some students,” Peres said.
However, prosecution for having or being under the influence of weed has stayed the same here at East, according to both Peres and Woollen. Penalties include an automatic 5-day, out-of-school suspension from administration before turning it over to law enforcement. Most first-time offenders are sentenced to a diversion — a 4-6 month supervised program for juveniles in which they work on counseling and drug treatments to avoid going to court and being prosecuted.
Johnson County Assistant District Attorney Donald Hymer found use of marijuana through cartridges also rose as legalization continued and the public’s views softened. Hymer believes cartridges gave minors an easier and more discreet way to use the drug.
“There was definitely a culture shift in the adults, and that impacts the views of juveniles,” Hymer said.
Marijuana is still illegal for minors to possess anywhere and “there should be appropriate accountability for juveniles using it,” Hymer said.
A 2021 JAMA Pediatrics study found that within 1-year of trying marijuana, 11% of adolescents had become addicted to it. They struggled to stop using their substance as it changed their brain chemistry compared to 6.4% from older age groups. They also found within three years of first using marijuana, 20% of adolescents became dependent — where their body physically relies on the drug — which was double the amount of older groups.
Another East senior, Jayden Taylor*, quickly became dependent on the drug. He was able to access a cartridge through his older brother who knew how to get products from Missouri.
Taylor, like the others, would use the drug to cope. In his sophomore year, he began falling behind in school with dropping grades and lack of motivation to do work. He said marijuana helped him avoid his struggles.
Taylor would be high practically all day at school, and he was unable to pay attention to a single lesson. He simply did not care about the lesson on radicals his math teacher was giving, the English essay he was supposed to be working on or the bad grade on his latest science test when he was high.
Taylor’s academic struggles due to daily marijuana use aren’t abnormal though. THC in the adolescent brain can cause cognitive issues affecting memory, attention span, problem solving and learning, according to American Addiction Centers.
“I started because I was falling behind, but it made me just keep falling even more,” Taylor said.
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