Doctors Recommend Medical Marjiuana for Minors with ADHD in California

NYDailyNews.com

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Doctors will prescribe kids with ADHD medical marjiuana in California.

Hey, hyperactive kids, in California you can get stoned -- legally. California doctors are now recommending marijuana to children diagnosed with attention hyperactivity disorder, Sphere reports. 

Since 2004, California has given out more than 36,000 medical marijuana cards.  The number of these cards going to children - it appears that all of the known cases are teenagers - is not known, as doctors are not required to report medical marijuana cases.

However, experts say medical marijuana cards going to minors are on the rise.  Parents must accompany children under 18 requesting medical marijuana to this doctor's appointment, the New York Times reports.

Even with this precaution, the fact that children can get medical marijuana is creating quite a controversy.

"Let me count the ways in which prescribing marijuana for teens with ADHD is a bad idea," Stephen Hinshaw, professor of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley, told Sphere.

"The active ingredient in pot, THC, causes short-term memory problems and inattention, the very same things you want a medicine for ADHD to help alleviate," Hinshaw said.

Others have fewer qualms about giving a kid with ADHD some pot.

"I'd have no hesitation giving a youngster with ADHD a trial of oral marijuana," Lester Grinspoon, emeritus professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and author of "Marijuana: The Forbidden Medicine," told Sphere.

"For some kids, it appears to be more effective than traditional treatments. And marijuana certainly has fewer potential dangers than Ritalin."

"My son was diagnosed with ADHD when he was 6," a Grass Valley, Calif., woman who wished to remain anonymous told Sphere. "He was hyperactive and had trouble in school, but we didn't want to put him on Ritalin. Too many side effects. When he got to high school, I suddenly noticed that he'd calmed and could concentrate. I couldn't figure it out. Then he told me that he'd started smoking pot."