MARIJUANA may be seen as a harmless social drug by many Jamaicans, but Teen Challenge Jamaica Director Barbara Richards says that perception is putting young people at risk, warning that the substance can damage the brain. Aditionally, she argued that alcohol is also being dangerously normalised.

Speaking to journalists at one of the Teen Challenge Jamaica facilities in Ocho Rios, St Ann, on Thursday during the Jamaica Product Exchange (JAPEX) 2026 Social Responsibility Day, Richards said the growing acceptance of marijuana was particularly concerning because young people were being exposed to drugs from an early age.

She said the problem was compounded by the availability of marijuana and other substances, while public education about their effects remained inadequate.

Richards said Teen Challenge Jamaica, a faith-based residential rehabilitation programme for people over 18 years old, conducts prevention programmes in schools, but believes much more needs to be done to equip children with the knowledge and coping skills necessary to resist substance use.

“You know, to every need there’s a supplier, right? And so to every street corner that anybody goes out they can find marijuana or crack cocaine… very cheap and very available. And so the supply is always the greatest challenge,” she said.

But Richards said availability was only part of the problem.

She argued that Jamaica’s social attitude towards alcohol and marijuana could make it harder for people to recognise when casual use develops into harmful or addictive behaviour.

“Alcohol is an acceptable pastime in Jamaica, but it and drugs erode the mind and the mental capabilities of all people, and so the education has to be done on a wider scale for people to understand. The bottom line is that it used to be that they would tell you — from the US, because of the money that is involved — it’s okay. Now they say the opposite, and if America has a cold or sneezes, Jamaica gets a cold, and so it will trickle down eventually to say marijuana is no good, marijuana debilitates the mind, drugs on a whole, alcohol on a whole, debilitates the mind,” she argued.

Richards was particularly critical of the perception that marijuana is less harmful because it is viewed as a social drug.

She said her experience at Teen Challenge had exposed her to people whose lives, she believes, had been seriously affected by marijuana dependence.

“Studies have proven, and our experience has shown, that marijuana not only is more potent, but marijuana affects the mind, the brain, it shrinks the brain, as opposed to crack cocaine or the act of snorting cocaine, that is more addictive than marijuana, but it is not as dangerous to the mind as marijuana is,” she added.

Richards then pointed to what she described as a real-life example of the consequences she has seen.

She said one woman awaiting entry into the programme had previously attended University of Technology, Jamaica, with eight subjects, but was now struggling to function at work and at home because of marijuana addiction.

Richards also criticised messages that she said have historically portrayed marijuana as beneficial or harmless, including claims that it helps people to think more clearly.

She said those messages can be particularly influential among young people who are still developing their attitudes towards drug use.

The director said Teen Challenge’s experience has reinforced her belief that prevention cannot begin only after someone develops an addiction.

She said parents have an important role to play, but acknowledged the difficulty of that responsibility when some adults themselves use or sell drugs.

“But then [some] of these very parents are the ones who are involved by either selling or indulging in drugs. So it’s a tug of war, but God is in charge of it all,” she said.

Richards said greater collaboration between the education and health sectors was needed to strengthen national prevention efforts, arguing that the National Council on Drug Abuse alone was not enough to carry the burden of public education.

“I don’t believe enough has been done. I don’t believe the Government is focused. I believe the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health should come together. Yes, we have the National Council on Drug Abuse existing, but they are a small voice in what happens where drugs are concerned in the nation, and so more needs to be done to educate the children,” she suggested.