By Charlie Mahler
Rice County is offering a free webinar on Thursday, March 5, from 6 to 8 p.m for parents and those who work with youth to help detect underage drinking and illegal drug use, with a focus on cannabis use.
Titled “High in Plain Sight,” the online presentation will feature nationally recognized speaker Jermaine Galloway, a law enforcement officer and substance use prevention educator, along with a panel of local officials working in the field.
“He’s going to talk about drug trends in general and talk about some common terms and logos, some vape pens used for synthetic drugs, just kind of get into the nitty-gritty,” Grace Pint, the Rice County Substance Use Prevention Coordinator, explained. “He has been doing this work a long time so he’s really, really good at educating people. So, we’re hoping this opportunity helps parents understand, if their child is using, to know the signs and how they can help.”
Pint and Toby Anderson, the county’s Behavioral Health Supervisor, both webinar panelists, talked about the presentation on KYMN’s In the Morning program on Tuesday.
According to the 2025 Minnesota Student Survey, cited in the county’s news release about the webinar, 6% of Rice County eighth-graders reported they’ve used cannabis or hashish, a figure higher than the state average of 3.8%. By 11th-grade, 15.8% of Rice County students responded positively to use, matching the state percentage.
Research has shown that cannabis use by those under 25-years old can permanently affect brain development. Despite widespread cannabis legalization, including in Minnesota, it is still against state law for those under 21-years old to use the drug.
“I got into this field when my son was in high school and that was one of his arguments: look man, it’s completely natural, it helps my anxiety, it does all these things,” Anderson recounted. “Actually, the opposite of that is true. It can increase your anxiety. And this is where the danger really comes in, with THC and adolescents is they’re still right in the middle of that brain development and THC can really impact that in a negative way.”
Pint and Anderson both underscored that the THC potency of today’s cannabis products is significantly higher than in previous decades: 3-5% cannabis flower potencies in the 1970s and 1980s are dwarfed by 20% potencies today. THC is the psychoactive chemical in cannabis. Thursday’s webinar is free, but registration via the Rice County Public Health website is required. Registrants will receive information via email about connecting to the webinar.
Charlie Mahlers is a regular KYMN News contributor. Contact him at news@kymnradio.net
