Yesterday Fox 31 Denver reported on the new data from the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) regarding suspensions for marijuana among Colorado students. Based on the fact that Edgewater has six marijuana dispensaries within our less than a square mile borders, we watch this data very closely. What impact might these dispensaries have on students at Jefferson Junior/Senior High School in Edgewater?

We took the data from CDE and added other data points for context. Based on the number of students in each school we determined an incident rate for marijuana. We also added the percentage of students who receive free or reduced lunch rates to provide more context around the students who face the roadblocks of poverty.

At this point we don’t have enough data to show trends but we do think it is interesting that four out of the five schools with the highest marijuana incident rates also have the highest percentage of students struggling against poverty. Do students from wealthier families have access to funds that enable them to purchase marijuana edibles or vaping devices that make detection by school staff harder? This data also raises interesting questions about how schools track marijuana incidents and if each school uses the same standards for reporting. Another important data set regarding marijuana use among teenagers will be the results of the 2018 Healthy Kids Colorado Survey. It will be interesting to see the correlations between self-reported marijuana use among teenagers and the marijuana incidents at Colorado schools.

We will continue to monitor this data over the next few years to see if any trends emerge. Is it poverty or proximity to marijuana dispensaries that contribute to higher marijuana incident rates? Are the reporting standards the same across the school district? What interventions are the most successful in lower marijuana use among teenagers?