Doctors at Children’s National Hospital are reporting a spike in kids needing treatment for cannabis use disorder. Children as young as 11 years old are receiving help.
When asked how they’re getting access to cannabis products such as vape cartridges, often the young patients’ reply is “It’s easy.” Kids report they either buy the products or get them from friends.
“I had one particular patient of mine who said, ‘I just have to open my eyes and I can find it’,” Dr. Siva Kaliamurthy of Children’s National Hospital told us. Kaliamurthy specializes in addiction psychiatry.
In the past year and a half, the hospital says its addiction program has seen a spike in middle and high schoolers with cannabis use disorder.
Symptoms of the disorder, a mental health condition, include confusion and memory issues, sleep problems, sudden behavior changes, anxiety, hallucinations and psychosis.
In 2021, the Cleveland Clinic found that nearly 6% of people ages 12 and over had experienced cannabis use disorder within the previous year.
“All the kids that we are seeing are typically using high-potency products daily,” Kiliamurthy said.
“They might have been suspended from school, have had issues with friends, families, but none of that seems to stop their behaviors around cannabis use,” he said.
If patients use cannabis for long enough, they can also develop a condition called cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, which causes frequent vomiting, abdominal pain, loss of appetite and a strong urge for baths or showers to calm symptoms.
Currently, there aren’t any medications that treat cannabis use disorder.
“We often rely on behavioral interventions. What kind of psychotherapy that the patient needs, but also what does the family need,” Kiliamurthy said.
“Be aware of the effects of cannabis, making sure that we are not normalizing cannabis use,” he said.