Well, I think you make a good point. As a former junior high school teacher, that's certainly something I consider a lot. How do we minimize the risks for vulnerable young people?
I think we can look at the model that we've used for tobacco, where we have really, through accurate and aggressive information campaigns, been able to reduce the uptake of tobacco rather successfully amongst young people. That's a major public health victory that we've been able to have.
One of the reasons we see some use amongst young people is that there's a lack of trust in the information they're provided because of a long history of stigmatization and exaggeration in the war on drugs. We end up with young people who don't believe what they're told and won't take the advice of older people.
You're right, there is nothing that is harmless. So we want to think about relative harms and risks relative to other substances. Through accurate education, public health initiatives, and prevention, we can be effective at protecting those young people, which I think is a priority.