Youth Ministry and the Marijuana Boom

 On January 1st my home state of Colorado will allow recreational marijuana sales and usage by anyone 21 years of age or older. Although this technically doesn't include sales to teenagers many in our state (including me) are bracing themselves for the inevitable normalization more and more teenagers smoking weed.

Even today in the Denver Post I read the response of Dave Logan, the well-known football coach at Cherry Creek High School in the Denver area. He said, "For years, whether it's drinking, or now with pot being legalized, it trickles down, unfortunately, to ninth-,10th-,11th- and 12th-graders."

And trickle down it will, not just to teenagers in Colorado and Washington, but across the nation. More and more teenagers see using pot as "not a big deal." According to the Denver Post (quoting Federal officials), "High school seniors who view marijuana as a risk fell to just under 40 percent."

As the father of a young man who is about to turn 13 on January 30th and the President of a ministry that trains tens of thousands of Christian teenagers from across the nation annually, this is a big deal to me. Both as a dad and youth ministry leader I want to help teenagers (and other youth leaders) think Biblically about marijuana use and it's impact on society.

Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/marijuana-teenagers-and-youth-ministry-111876/