With marijuana use rates on the rise and attitudes toward the drug softening, the latest information and research on marijuana-related trends remains a key tool for anti-drug community coalitions.

This webinar will discuss new research recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and other studies that have shown a link between prolonged marijuana use and cognitive or neural impairment. These studies show persistent marijuana use can reduce the IQ scores of users by as much as 8 points putting them in the bottom third of the intelligence range.

The presentation will also clearly define the differences between medical marijuana, decriminalization and legalization and describe their impact on communities. Participants will also learn why community coalitions should care about marijuana use and engage their communities to address the marijuana issue, particularly around formulating messages and developing other effective strategies.

Presenters: Dr. Susan Weiss, Acting Director of the Office of Science Policy and Communications at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA); Kevin Sabet, Ph.D., Director of the Institute on Drug Policy (IDP) at the University of Florida, Assistant Professor in the College of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry; Sue Thau, CADCA Public Policy Consultant.

Rhonda Ramsey Molina, Deputy Director of Dissemination and Coalition Relations for the CADCA Institute, will moderate.

The Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) is the national webinar sponsor.  The Healthy UND Alcohol and Other Drugs (AOD) Committee is the local host.