For this post, I reviewed Stanford Medicine, Safety First’s lesson on Cannabis usage. The lesson itself is a Canva slideshow that can be broken down into three sections: an explanation of what Cannabis is and the various methods it can be used, the benefits and harms that come out of Cannabis usage, and harm reduction strategies. Along with the slideshow is a Kahoot game, a facilitator guide, talking points that break down each slide and give pointers on what to say, and a short discussion guide to hand out to students at the end. I like how the lesson goes in-depth on the differences between Sativa, Indica, and Hybrid strains as well as how different ways of smoking or consuming Cannabis affect your body in different ways. This would be beneficial to me as a future secondary educator because I think many middle and high school students do not exactly realize the different types of highs you experience from smoking a joint compared to consuming an edible. Another aspect of the lesson I liked was how they gave small clips of what exactly happens when smoking or ingesting Cannabis, along with a description of what could happen if you choose to smoke or consume Cannabis.

Although the lesson is strong, there are some things I would change or add to it, further strengthening the impact of it. For example, I would take out the video included about Cannabis and COVID-19 and instead briefly discuss the legalities surrounding Cannabis. As it is slowly becoming more legalized in the country, I feel as if students should know the laws about it that are specific to the area I will teach in. A weakness I spotted in the presentation is that it only briefly mentioned being wary of receiving tampered Cannabis and saying to be weary of it having high levels of THC. I would instead elaborate on this but replace high levels of THC with Fentanyl. Deaths by Fentanyl increase due to people doing any type of drug, not knowing they have been laced with the deadly drug. I want my students to be aware of this high risk if they choose to experiment or use Cannabis since most of the time these students do not know the exact source of where the drugs are coming from.

Stanford Medicine, Safety First’s lesson on Cannabis usage is a strong one that would be great to teach middle and high school students but could be improved upon to make it a more effective lesson.

References

Halpern-Felsher REACH Lab. (n.d.). Safety First – Lesson 7. Stanford Medicine. https://med.stanford.edu/halpern-felsher-reach-lab/preventions-interventions/Safety-First/safety-first-lesson-7.html