April 30, 2023 • 15 mins
With legalization of marijuana, easier access and more open usage among adults, the cannabis landscape has also shifted dramatically for children and teens. Davon Russell, President of the Bronx-based Community Development Organization WHEDco, talks marijuana perception and access for young people, and the need for education for all New Yorkers. For more, visit whedco.org.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:02):
Welcome to get connected with Nina delRio, a weekly conversation about fitness,
health and happenings in our community onone oh six point seven Light FM.
Good morning, and thanks for listening. To get connected. With the legalization
of marijuana, with easier access andmore open usage among adults, the cannabis
landscape has also shifted dramatically for childrenand teens. Our guest is Devon Russell,
(00:27):
president of the Bronx based community developmentorganization WEDCO, to talk about marijuana
perception, access and education surrounding youngNew Yorkers. Devon Russell, thank you
for being on the show. Thankyou for having me. Wedco's website is
wedco wheedco dot org. Webco's missionis to provide the Bronx with access to
(00:47):
all the resources that create thriving neighborhoodsthrough early education and after school programs,
healthy food, cultural programming, andeconomic opportunity. Devon WEDCO works in many
spaces. We're specifically talking about youngadult else today in what ways just sort
of a larger sense, do youwork with kids and teens? So we
work with kids beginning as early aspreschool. We have a center based preschool
(01:12):
for children ages three in ages four, and we have a very broad network
of home based childcare providers. Theseare typically women who run childcare businesses out
of their own homes, and weare affiliated with maybe a few hundred,
three hundred, four hundred of them, caring for over two thousand children beginning
(01:32):
as early as newborns, and theystay in their care in some cases all
the way up until their middle school. We have a very vast experience in
that childcare space. So we're talkingabout kids and marijuana. Experimenting with substances
for kids is nothing new. Legalmarijuana is new, easy access is new.
(01:52):
We're going to drill down in thisconversation, but in general, what
are you seeing so lot we've we'vetalked about and have clearly recognized the experimentation
from you know, the time wewere young and experimenting. It has always
been the case in my experience.I've been at Wetco now almost twenty six
(02:15):
years. I've been around the Bronxfor thirty four years. Somehow black and
brown young people remain in an arrestlessstate of development around cannabis use. And
by that I mean pockets of youngpeople standing on a corner, not in
(02:36):
school, not engaged in school,not engaged in any kind of schoolike activity,
not engaged in work. Smoking marijuanais not new, there's a there's
a historical significance to that in myexperience. So fast forward to twenty nineteen,
twenty twenty, right before the pandemic, legalization in New York was picking
(02:59):
up. Right, we were clearlyon a path to legalization. And while
I'm a firm believer and understand thereasons for decriminalization, the history all of
this, I'm firmly in that camp. I thought what needed to ride hand
in hand with legalization, It's partand parcel has to be education for young
(03:22):
people. So that was nineteen.I remember thinking, Okay, what can
we do to bring this to thefour and begin for our kids this path
to understanding about what this cannabis thingis all about. First of all,
legally, anyone under twenty one shouldn'tbe able to buy it. I believe
there's only four legal dispensaries open today. Yes, yeah, but let's be
(03:46):
honest, you can smell it everywhereeverywhere where. Are kids getting it?
So to answer your question before this, you had asked what am I hearing?
So one of the things I did, given the fact that we have
a program designed to and we cantalk about this later, educate and to
provide information to children around stubstance use. I sat in on a class and
(04:12):
maybe about a month or an ahalf ago, just to kind of learn
where our twelve year olds were orare. I had heard anecdotally that they
were, you know, in aparticular place, but I wanted to hear
from myself, and this is whatI heard. Number one, this is
from a group of things. Theywere about fourteen twelve year olds in the
class I sat in on. Cannabisis a plant. It's harm less.
(04:40):
Especially because it's a plant, Itis very much accessible, right. They
can get it at the corner store. They can get it at the bodega,
you know, the smoke shop.They can get it from people who
are selling it on a corner.They can get it from their cousin who
uses frequently. It is everywhere.The other thing that I learned was that
(05:01):
they accept or have understood that ithelps with anxiety. And because we were
in the throes of the pandemic,there's a lot being thrown around about kids
and anxiety. Right, everybody issuper anxious, so it helps with anxiety
and the like, and heard this. They also know and understand very little
(05:26):
about what it does to your bodies. Once we start getting into the questions
about anything about brain function of comparement, they knew very little. And the
worst part for me was they hadtheir classmates who have already earned the label
of weed head. That was reallywhen it kind of hit me. This
(05:46):
is significant because what that tells youis that there are people who were using
to the degree where they're already impaired. They're coming to school, they're not
engaging in school, they're falling asleepin class. Their classmates know that they
are consuming. And we're not talkingjust about seventeen sixteen, eighteen year old,
they're twelve sixth grade is the groupI sat with. Well, we're
(06:13):
speaking with Devon Russell of WEDCO.He's president of the Bronx based community development
organization. We're talking about marijuana usein young kids in New York Education Access.
You're listening to get connected on oneoh six point seven light FM.
I'mina del Rio. Let's talk aboutthe health issue. Because for people who
smoke some weed in high school,in college and you have a real job
(06:34):
now you think it's fine, butcannabis is also different than it used to
be. That too. One ofthe things that people always bring me back
to is, well, you know, the studies have shown that, you
know, well, the studies weredone at a time when we're not dealing
with THHC levels over fifty percent.We're also not dealing with a world or
(06:54):
weren't dealing with the world where cannabiswas being mixed with other things. And
we can get to that later,because my biggest fear is what's happening with
fentonel plus weed, etc. Buthere's what we know from our own NIH.
Right, this is the National Instituteof Health. It says that young
people are more vulnerable to developing substanceuse disorders. Right. Not everyone will
(07:16):
develop addiction, but adolescents are moreprone faster than adults to become addicted to
substance. Marijuana is linked to schoolfailure, lower income, or a quality
of life. Marijuana has negative effectson attention, motivation, memory, learning
that can persist after the drugs immediateeffects are worn off, especially in people
(07:41):
who use irregularly. This is fromour NIH. This is the government body
that's in charge of how we liveand perform. From a health perspective,
none of that is making its waydown to children and families, right,
because it's not just about what kidsare learning. It's all about what families
are learning. Parents know and arethen able to guide or at least set
(08:03):
some structures in place for their children. So it's scary. The other scary
part about this, of course,is overdosing. I've read in the past
three weeks four emails that have comeacross my desk, not from New York
City schools, but from other schoolsacross New York State where kids have died
(08:26):
because of overdose because they thought theywere vaping cannabis, but it was cannabis
plus fenton all. In one case, the nurse was able to administer in
our camp in time and the kidwas revived. But we've we've real kids
dying because of either the confusion orthe just not knowing about what's out there.
(08:50):
And this is a product that wouldhave been purchased at someplace. It's
just a bodega or something an illegalsomewhere. Yeah, there's a piece recently
that I had read where there werein a a smoke shop and he worked
out of a place that was betweenthe two at the time licensed dispensaries in
New York City, and his claimwas, well, let the kids come
into me, because at least I'mselling them clean cannabis as opposed to my
(09:15):
friends around the corner over may notbe obviously what drives and will drive this
is big money. When that entersthe equation, then we're talking about a
whole other issue. Just like withJewell, right, we saw when it
first entered the market as the solutionfatar lower cancer or whatever, it grew
to be a thirty one billion dollarindustry because of targeting of young people.
(09:39):
And what we learned that again waswell, it really was that great for
you. This is where this isgoing because of the money that's attached to
it. There's so much potential forjust a huge windfall for people who are
invested. And before I want toget into sort of a bit of that,
but before we do, there's alsothe issue. I think with the
edibles they look like candy, andeven adults really don't even they don't know
(10:01):
how to course that stuff out.The kids are similarly misinformed, I'll informed,
not informed. They were asked questionsaround half life, meaning how long
does edible last How long does anedible take for you to start feeling the
effects? They have no clue exceptthey know that they do it. And
(10:22):
what I've heard from parents is withedibles, it's harder for them to do
their detective work because it's not we'renot in a time anymore. You're in
a closet smoking, and everybody cansmell that you're doing something. You listen,
there's no smell, And what arethe signs that someone is impaired or
high however you want to categorize it. So that's making it very hard for
(10:43):
parents and providers and teachers or allthe adults to really get to what is
happening to Jose. Why is hepresenting in the way he is, not
knowing that Jose just popped himself agummy a few hours ago. Not only
that, I don't know if you'veseen the marketing of these products. They
(11:07):
mirror handy but a finger looks likea butterfinger, except that it's THHC loaded
something. The M and m's looklike M and ms. There's smoke shops
that are designed to look like candystores. They're all over the city.
(11:28):
We're kind of at a moment right, you were talking about it. This
this push to legalize marijuana was Ithink for good reasons. But the laws
are not there. There's like agap in there. So we'll talk about
parents. But where's the crossover whatshould be happening as far as like laws
and we have to we have toacknowledge. And I don't know if this
gets me in trouble, but Idon't really care. We have to acknowledge
(11:50):
that we are working from behind.Right it's a fourth quarter, we're down
by two touchdowns and we're trying toplay catch up because we have to the
state had promised that twenty percent ofsales, the proceeds from sales would go
to education. We out there yetI see what's running on TV now Our
(12:11):
PSAs around gambling, because that's theother play, but we want to talk
about that. So we know thatif you gamble, it's just set aside
a certain amount and don't lose anymore. But where is that for education around
substance use? So we need tocatch up. What I believe should happen
is groups like ours and others whoare really in touch with young people.
(12:33):
We have their trust. We haveto talk about implementing theory based, evidence
informed curricula right that teaches and allowsand facilitates for young people to make informed
choices. That's our obligation and that'swhat we try to do. One of
the things that WEDCO had done yearsago. I spoke a while ago with
(12:58):
someone who led the JAM program orthe Just Ask Meg program. Kids are
more likely to listen to kids You'rejust ask Meg program was a program or
is a program from middle school studentsabout high school students about sex ed Yes,
this another thing you can tackle.So what we've done and again,
beginning in twenty nineteen, right beforethe pandemic had hit, with the realization
(13:18):
that this was coming down, weadded substance use to the JAM curriculum.
So what these young people were getting, they'll have their weeks of sexual reproductive
health, you know, gender identity, all of that, and end they'll
have a series on substance use.So that's how we were that's how we
have fashioned it based on the factthat we have this program already and JAM
(13:43):
relies on peer educators, and Ibelieve that you know, some study shows
and we have experienced that the accessibilityis just that much more effective when it's
coming from people that are closer tothem, and it's not preaching. It's
not in a way that we kindof hit them over the head, although
some kids may need a little bitmore wars to really get to some understanding
of what's happening. So that's whatwe have chosen to do. It's evidence
(14:07):
based, its choice, it's gettingthe information out and from a source that
is reliable in their minds. Whatwould you ask from adults, whether you
have kids or not, or evenyoung adults listening to this conversation, We
have to get informed. I thinkyou know, I liken this to what
we did once we learned that therewas going to be a vaccine and our
(14:33):
communities were ravaged by the pandemic.Right the status are there? How many
people in the Bronx died or sufferedfrom COVID And we knew that it was
going to be a cell to getpeople, you know, to take the
vaccine, and we had an educationprogram that we launched along with the Cornell
Medical So we want to do somethinglike this where parents really have to just
(14:54):
come in and sit and understand theinformation that needs to be shared, and
young people similarly, it's all aboutknowledge. Knowledge sets you up for making
decisions that are informed, and that'sthe platform from which we're launching this nothing
more sophisticated knowledge. That's a greatplace to end. Devon Russell is president
(15:16):
of Webco. You can find outmore at wheedco dot org. Thank you
for being on Get Connected. Thankyou. This has been Get Connected with
Nina del Rio on one oh sixpoint seven Lightfm. The views and opinions
of our guests do not necessarily reflectthe views of the station. If you
missed any part of our show orwant to share it, visit our website
for downloads and podcasts at one sixseven lightfm dot com. Thanks for listening.
Welcome to get connected with Nina delRio, a weekly conversation about fitness,
health and happenings in our community onone oh six point seven Light FM.
Good morning, and thanks for listening. To get connected. With the legalization
of marijuana, with easier access andmore open usage among adults, the cannabis
landscape has also shifted dramatically for childrenand teens. Our guest is Devon Russell,
(00:27):
president of the Bronx based community developmentorganization WEDCO, to talk about marijuana
perception, access and education surrounding youngNew Yorkers. Devon Russell, thank you
for being on the show. Thankyou for having me. Wedco's website is
wedco wheedco dot org. Webco's missionis to provide the Bronx with access to
(00:47):
all the resources that create thriving neighborhoodsthrough early education and after school programs,
healthy food, cultural programming, andeconomic opportunity. Devon WEDCO works in many
spaces. We're specifically talking about youngadult else today in what ways just sort
of a larger sense, do youwork with kids and teens? So we
work with kids beginning as early aspreschool. We have a center based preschool
(01:12):
for children ages three in ages four, and we have a very broad network
of home based childcare providers. Theseare typically women who run childcare businesses out
of their own homes, and weare affiliated with maybe a few hundred,
three hundred, four hundred of them, caring for over two thousand children beginning
(01:32):
as early as newborns, and theystay in their care in some cases all
the way up until their middle school. We have a very vast experience in
that childcare space. So we're talkingabout kids and marijuana. Experimenting with substances
for kids is nothing new. Legalmarijuana is new, easy access is new.
(01:52):
We're going to drill down in thisconversation, but in general, what
are you seeing so lot we've we'vetalked about and have clearly recognized the experimentation
from you know, the time wewere young and experimenting. It has always
been the case in my experience.I've been at Wetco now almost twenty six
(02:15):
years. I've been around the Bronxfor thirty four years. Somehow black and
brown young people remain in an arrestlessstate of development around cannabis use. And
by that I mean pockets of youngpeople standing on a corner, not in
(02:36):
school, not engaged in school,not engaged in any kind of schoolike activity,
not engaged in work. Smoking marijuanais not new, there's a there's
a historical significance to that in myexperience. So fast forward to twenty nineteen,
twenty twenty, right before the pandemic, legalization in New York was picking
(02:59):
up. Right, we were clearlyon a path to legalization. And while
I'm a firm believer and understand thereasons for decriminalization, the history all of
this, I'm firmly in that camp. I thought what needed to ride hand
in hand with legalization, It's partand parcel has to be education for young
(03:22):
people. So that was nineteen.I remember thinking, Okay, what can
we do to bring this to thefour and begin for our kids this path
to understanding about what this cannabis thingis all about. First of all,
legally, anyone under twenty one shouldn'tbe able to buy it. I believe
there's only four legal dispensaries open today. Yes, yeah, but let's be
(03:46):
honest, you can smell it everywhereeverywhere where. Are kids getting it?
So to answer your question before this, you had asked what am I hearing?
So one of the things I did, given the fact that we have
a program designed to and we cantalk about this later, educate and to
provide information to children around stubstance use. I sat in on a class and
(04:12):
maybe about a month or an ahalf ago, just to kind of learn
where our twelve year olds were orare. I had heard anecdotally that they
were, you know, in aparticular place, but I wanted to hear
from myself, and this is whatI heard. Number one, this is
from a group of things. Theywere about fourteen twelve year olds in the
class I sat in on. Cannabisis a plant. It's harm less.
(04:40):
Especially because it's a plant, Itis very much accessible, right. They
can get it at the corner store. They can get it at the bodega,
you know, the smoke shop.They can get it from people who
are selling it on a corner.They can get it from their cousin who
uses frequently. It is everywhere.The other thing that I learned was that
(05:01):
they accept or have understood that ithelps with anxiety. And because we were
in the throes of the pandemic,there's a lot being thrown around about kids
and anxiety. Right, everybody issuper anxious, so it helps with anxiety
and the like, and heard this. They also know and understand very little
(05:26):
about what it does to your bodies. Once we start getting into the questions
about anything about brain function of comparement, they knew very little. And the
worst part for me was they hadtheir classmates who have already earned the label
of weed head. That was reallywhen it kind of hit me. This
(05:46):
is significant because what that tells youis that there are people who were using
to the degree where they're already impaired. They're coming to school, they're not
engaging in school, they're falling asleepin class. Their classmates know that they
are consuming. And we're not talkingjust about seventeen sixteen, eighteen year old,
they're twelve sixth grade is the groupI sat with. Well, we're
(06:13):
speaking with Devon Russell of WEDCO.He's president of the Bronx based community development
organization. We're talking about marijuana usein young kids in New York Education Access.
You're listening to get connected on oneoh six point seven light FM.
I'mina del Rio. Let's talk aboutthe health issue. Because for people who
smoke some weed in high school,in college and you have a real job
(06:34):
now you think it's fine, butcannabis is also different than it used to
be. That too. One ofthe things that people always bring me back
to is, well, you know, the studies have shown that, you
know, well, the studies weredone at a time when we're not dealing
with THHC levels over fifty percent.We're also not dealing with a world or
(06:54):
weren't dealing with the world where cannabiswas being mixed with other things. And
we can get to that later,because my biggest fear is what's happening with
fentonel plus weed, etc. Buthere's what we know from our own NIH.
Right, this is the National Instituteof Health. It says that young
people are more vulnerable to developing substanceuse disorders. Right. Not everyone will
(07:16):
develop addiction, but adolescents are moreprone faster than adults to become addicted to
substance. Marijuana is linked to schoolfailure, lower income, or a quality
of life. Marijuana has negative effectson attention, motivation, memory, learning
that can persist after the drugs immediateeffects are worn off, especially in people
(07:41):
who use irregularly. This is fromour NIH. This is the government body
that's in charge of how we liveand perform. From a health perspective,
none of that is making its waydown to children and families, right,
because it's not just about what kidsare learning. It's all about what families
are learning. Parents know and arethen able to guide or at least set
(08:03):
some structures in place for their children. So it's scary. The other scary
part about this, of course,is overdosing. I've read in the past
three weeks four emails that have comeacross my desk, not from New York
City schools, but from other schoolsacross New York State where kids have died
(08:26):
because of overdose because they thought theywere vaping cannabis, but it was cannabis
plus fenton all. In one case, the nurse was able to administer in
our camp in time and the kidwas revived. But we've we've real kids
dying because of either the confusion orthe just not knowing about what's out there.
(08:50):
And this is a product that wouldhave been purchased at someplace. It's
just a bodega or something an illegalsomewhere. Yeah, there's a piece recently
that I had read where there werein a a smoke shop and he worked
out of a place that was betweenthe two at the time licensed dispensaries in
New York City, and his claimwas, well, let the kids come
into me, because at least I'mselling them clean cannabis as opposed to my
(09:15):
friends around the corner over may notbe obviously what drives and will drive this
is big money. When that entersthe equation, then we're talking about a
whole other issue. Just like withJewell, right, we saw when it
first entered the market as the solutionfatar lower cancer or whatever, it grew
to be a thirty one billion dollarindustry because of targeting of young people.
(09:39):
And what we learned that again waswell, it really was that great for
you. This is where this isgoing because of the money that's attached to
it. There's so much potential forjust a huge windfall for people who are
invested. And before I want toget into sort of a bit of that,
but before we do, there's alsothe issue. I think with the
edibles they look like candy, andeven adults really don't even they don't know
(10:01):
how to course that stuff out.The kids are similarly misinformed, I'll informed,
not informed. They were asked questionsaround half life, meaning how long
does edible last How long does anedible take for you to start feeling the
effects? They have no clue exceptthey know that they do it. And
(10:22):
what I've heard from parents is withedibles, it's harder for them to do
their detective work because it's not we'renot in a time anymore. You're in
a closet smoking, and everybody cansmell that you're doing something. You listen,
there's no smell, And what arethe signs that someone is impaired or
high however you want to categorize it. So that's making it very hard for
(10:43):
parents and providers and teachers or allthe adults to really get to what is
happening to Jose. Why is hepresenting in the way he is, not
knowing that Jose just popped himself agummy a few hours ago. Not only
that, I don't know if you'veseen the marketing of these products. They
(11:07):
mirror handy but a finger looks likea butterfinger, except that it's THHC loaded
something. The M and m's looklike M and ms. There's smoke shops
that are designed to look like candystores. They're all over the city.
(11:28):
We're kind of at a moment right, you were talking about it. This
this push to legalize marijuana was Ithink for good reasons. But the laws
are not there. There's like agap in there. So we'll talk about
parents. But where's the crossover whatshould be happening as far as like laws
and we have to we have toacknowledge. And I don't know if this
gets me in trouble, but Idon't really care. We have to acknowledge
(11:50):
that we are working from behind.Right it's a fourth quarter, we're down
by two touchdowns and we're trying toplay catch up because we have to the
state had promised that twenty percent ofsales, the proceeds from sales would go
to education. We out there yetI see what's running on TV now Our
(12:11):
PSAs around gambling, because that's theother play, but we want to talk
about that. So we know thatif you gamble, it's just set aside
a certain amount and don't lose anymore. But where is that for education around
substance use? So we need tocatch up. What I believe should happen
is groups like ours and others whoare really in touch with young people.
(12:33):
We have their trust. We haveto talk about implementing theory based, evidence
informed curricula right that teaches and allowsand facilitates for young people to make informed
choices. That's our obligation and that'swhat we try to do. One of
the things that WEDCO had done yearsago. I spoke a while ago with
(12:58):
someone who led the JAM program orthe Just Ask Meg program. Kids are
more likely to listen to kids You'rejust ask Meg program was a program or
is a program from middle school studentsabout high school students about sex ed Yes,
this another thing you can tackle.So what we've done and again,
beginning in twenty nineteen, right beforethe pandemic had hit, with the realization
(13:18):
that this was coming down, weadded substance use to the JAM curriculum.
So what these young people were getting, they'll have their weeks of sexual reproductive
health, you know, gender identity, all of that, and end they'll
have a series on substance use.So that's how we were that's how we
have fashioned it based on the factthat we have this program already and JAM
(13:43):
relies on peer educators, and Ibelieve that you know, some study shows
and we have experienced that the accessibilityis just that much more effective when it's
coming from people that are closer tothem, and it's not preaching. It's
not in a way that we kindof hit them over the head, although
some kids may need a little bitmore wars to really get to some understanding
of what's happening. So that's whatwe have chosen to do. It's evidence
(14:07):
based, its choice, it's gettingthe information out and from a source that
is reliable in their minds. Whatwould you ask from adults, whether you
have kids or not, or evenyoung adults listening to this conversation, We
have to get informed. I thinkyou know, I liken this to what
we did once we learned that therewas going to be a vaccine and our
(14:33):
communities were ravaged by the pandemic.Right the status are there? How many
people in the Bronx died or sufferedfrom COVID And we knew that it was
going to be a cell to getpeople, you know, to take the
vaccine, and we had an educationprogram that we launched along with the Cornell
Medical So we want to do somethinglike this where parents really have to just
(14:54):
come in and sit and understand theinformation that needs to be shared, and
young people similarly, it's all aboutknowledge. Knowledge sets you up for making
decisions that are informed, and that'sthe platform from which we're launching this nothing
more sophisticated knowledge. That's a greatplace to end. Devon Russell is president
(15:16):
of Webco. You can find outmore at wheedco dot org. Thank you
for being on Get Connected. Thankyou. This has been Get Connected with
Nina del Rio on one oh sixpoint seven Lightfm. The views and opinions
of our guests do not necessarily reflectthe views of the station. If you
missed any part of our show orwant to share it, visit our website
for downloads and podcasts at one sixseven lightfm dot com. Thanks for listening.
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