It’s legalized for adult use. But it’s not legalized for youth. So that’s one of the biggest concerns — youth access.”

Denise Alves, director of the Barrington Prevention Coalition

Warning

The Rhode Island Regional Coalitions recently shared a flyer that included a list of harmful consequences of cannabis use:

• High potency THC is associated with psychotic disorders, increased risk of addiction, and generalized anxiety disorder

• Increased risk of schizophrenia, depression, and suicide

• Impact on attention, concentration and memory

• Impact on sleep and related consequences from sleep deprivation

• Impaired athletic performance — memory, coordination, judgment, increased heart, respiration and myocardial oxygen demand

• Altered brain development

• Chronic bronchitis

• Increased risk of birth defects, decreased head circumference, miscarriage if used by pregnant women

Denise Alves is proud of her hometown.

The director of the Barrington Prevention Coalition said she was very happy to see Barrington residents vote against allowing the sale of recreational cannabis in town. Barrington was one of only four communities statewide to vote against the RI Cannabis Act — 53 percent of voters in Barrington cast ballots against the measure in November.

“I was really proud. Forget my work here (as coalition director), I was really proud to be a citizen of this community when I saw that vote. I really was,” Alves said during an interview late last week.

“I think that was an important message for our community to give young people…”

Alves said the Barrington Prevention Coalition, along with prevention groups from Warren, Bristol and East Providence, worked hard to educate the public prior to the November election. 

The Coalitions created information sheets for the public, including one titled “Marijuana: Protecting our Youth and Communities.” The sheet stated that there has been increasing public acceptance of cannabis use because of legislative changes, commercialization and the rise of the vaping industry. 

“It’s legalized for adult use,” Alves said, as a reminder. “But it’s not legalized for youth. So that’s one of the biggest concerns — youth access.

“… one of the reasons we voted against it (retail sale of recreational cannabis) is youth access. So, yes they will be able to go to Warren if there’s a facility in Warren. They’ll be able to go to East Providence if there’s a facility in East Providence. They can go to Seekonk right now, but the access is further away. They need to have a car. A seventh-grader or eighth-grader isn’t going to be able to get over to Seekonk. But if it’s right in town, and they can walk or ride their bikes, and if someone’s not being on the level, they can (get it) … it’s closer access.”

Alves said teenagers and some middle school age children are already finding ways to get their hands on cannabis. 

“And that’s why the access piece is so important because they’re already finding ways to get it much younger. So if you have it in the middle of your town, it just speaks to closer access and easier access,” she said. 

According to the 2020 RI Student Survey, 16 percent of youth over the age of 12 use cannabis. Also, there has been a 65 percent increase in middle school students using cannabis. The survey also showed that more high school students in Rhode Island use cannabis than use alcohol. 

Alves said the recent vote by Barrington residents can be viewed as a clear statement that parents in this community do not want access to cannabis in this town. 

“I think it’s as easy as that,” Alves said. 

“Do I hope it (the recent vote) will make a big difference? Yes. Will it? That’s yet to be seen. I think the whole thing is yet to be seen… We haven’t seen any retail yet. That’s going to take time to get that set up. There are only so many licenses in the state, right now. And that’s another point, … that doesn’t mean that when all of this gets up and running they don’t jack it up,” Alves said, referring to an increase in the number of cannabis retail sales licenses.

Concerns

Alves said her number one concern for young people using cannabis is the long term health effects. 

“When somebody young gets offered a joint and they take it, they don’t understand. Everybody said it’s not addictive. But with frequent use, it shows a lot of the signs of addiction,” Alves said. “Does it chemically become addictive? That has shown not to be.

But, Alves added, it has shown to lead to repeated, habitual use.

“And the long-term health effects of it… long-term and short term — the whole drugged driving. They’ve gotten much better about drinking and driving. I think that message has really come across to young people for the most part. But with marijuana and driving, they don’t see it,” she said. 

“I think they don’t think it will be harmful, and it can be.”

Alves said the concentration rates for cannabis that is vaped can be very high, and that leads to further problems. 

“They’ve doubled and tripled in concentrations, and the vaping device is very concentrated in the delivery,” she said. 

“If you’re putting anything but air into your body, it’s not healthy…Then you get the psychoactive effect after that.”

Alves said officials with the area prevention coalitions will continue to do their part to educate people about the dangers associated with substance use and abuse. 

“Sometimes I think to myself, ‘My gosh, haven’t we educated people enough? Haven’t we talked about it enough?’ I have to remember that there are new babies being born that are going to be at the middle and high school, and will be naturally testing the limit of things. And this might be one of those things,” she said. 

“A lot of that is about educating the parents of younger children who may not have any idea. And I think they spoke (in the recent election), and said, ‘Whoa, I didn’t know that. My gosh, I’ve got a 10-year-old and I’m going to be dealing with this in a few years.’”

Alves said her field of work can be very frustrating at times. 

“Prevention in general is frustrating,” she said. “The frustrating part is that there is a lot of money that goes to treatment, that goes to recovery. And that’s wonderful. We need money to go there. Prevention, not so much (money). If you get somebody into recovery, you’re treating them, you can see what happened.

“We don’t know how many crashes we’re going to prevent. We don’t know how many 10- or 11-year-olds we might prevent from using cannabis because we educated their parents. You can’t put a figure on that. You have to keep educating people and you have to know that it’s difficult to put numbers on… how many people we saved.”