Six years after Michigan voters chose to legalize recreational marijuana, some education leaders are calling on the state to do more to combat use in schools.
There’s been an “alarming” rise in student consumption of pot edibles and use of vape pens, Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti wrote last week in a letter to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and other state officials.
“This trend is unacceptable and calls for immediate policy intervention,” he added, pleading for state funding to help districts purchase detection systems, public awareness campaigns and new packaging rules to limit appeal to minors.
Bridge Michigan spoke with several other school leaders across the state who said they too have concerns about pot edibles in schools but are also concerned by vape pens, otherwise known as e-cigarettes, which can be used relatively discreetly to vaporize either nicotine or marijuana products.
National surveys suggest teen marijuana use has remained relatively steady over the past decade – and remains far below peak usage of the 1970s – despite 24 states so far legalizing recreational sales and others allowing medical use.
But in Detroit, Vitti said the district has already recorded 745 drug-related offenses this year, up from an average of 578 the prior three years and an average of 144 during the first two-years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
At Holly Area Schools in northern Oakland County, there have been 95 student code of conduct violations involving nicotine vapes, THC vapes or cannabis edibles this year, according to Superintendent Scott Roper.
That’s up from 30 incidents last year and 18 in the 2021-22 school year.
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