What's Your 'HighQ'? Ventura County Program Educates Parents On Combatting Teen Pot Use
THOUSAND OAKS (CBSLA.com) — Studies show marijuana can be harmful to a teen's developing brain.
CBS2/KCAL9's Kristine Lazar looks at a new Ventura County program that arms parents with the knowledge they need to speak with their kids about pot use and its consequences.
The county Thursday launched "What's Your HighQ?" Visitors take a 10-question quiz that educates about the dangers of marijuana and addiction, and how prevalent pot use is among teens.
The site is "designed to help prompt parents to get an understanding of what they know or don't know about the effects and realities around marijuana," said Patrick Zarate, division manager of Ventura County's Division Manager Alcohol & Drug Programs. "We're trying to launch a platform for discussion."
Amara Baker, a student at the One Spark Academy in Thousand Oaks, is 13 and has already been exposed to the drug.
"I hear stories from my sister's school about it, too. Because one time she went on a choir trip and some kids got drunk and started smoking weed," Baker said.
One in four high school juniors in Ventura County has smoked weed in the last month, county health officials report.
Janice Gardner, a mother to 17-year-old twin girls, took the quiz Wednesday.
She read out one of the questions to one of her daughters, "How many IQ points do teenage weed smokers lose if they begin smoking heavily in their teens?"
Gardner was surprised by what she learned: "There was a lot of information that I had no idea about, especially the potency of the new marijuana that's out now, as opposed to back in the day."
The program isn't just online. Educators will visit schools and community groups over the next few months. For more information, visit HowHighVenturaCounty.org.
