Policymakers need to know the facts and take the right actions to protect kids and their futures. They hear a lot from marijuana industry lobbyists. They also need to listen to advocates for kids.
2025 DC Briefing
On March 13, 2025, One Chance to Grow Up held high-impact briefings on Capitol Hill for Congressional members and staff. These briefings exposed the unprecedented potencies, deceptive marketing, and alarming lack of youth protections tied to today’s high-potency THC and psychoactive “hemp” products and outlined urgent actions Congress can take to address these harms.
Moderated by our Co-Founder and Chairman Doug Robinson, the event featured nationally recognized experts:
Dr. Elinore McCance-Katz, former Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use, highlighted the serious public health risks these products pose to youth—linking them to worsening mental health, increased polysubstance use, and rising rates of opioid misuse and fentanyl exposure.
James Corbett, JD, MDiv, a national ethics and behavioral health expert, underscored the urgent need for safeguards, drawing on his leadership in launching the first-of-its-kind public health campaign focused on high-potency THC and its harms to the developing brain.
Read more here. Check out our YouTube Page to watch the full briefing.
At One Chance to Grow Up, we’ve prioritized policy goals that are
essential to protect kids.
2025 Congressional Letter to Close the Hemp Loophole in the FY26 Agricultural Appropriations Bill: One Chance signed a letter along with 77 state & national groups on the urgency of closing the hemp loophole.
To protect the health and safety of our communities, we need to completely close the federal loophole by explicitly excluding these products from the definition of hemp. These products are continually innovated to circumvent existing regulations, underscoring the urgent need for a comprehensive ban to effectively curtail their availability.
2025 Safer Banking Comments: The SAFE Banking Act will turbocharge marijuana commercialization before sound product, potency, and policy determinations are made. It is vital that before Congress considers giving expansive access to the nation’s lucrative financial markets, basic protections for young people are put in place. A requirement for basic youth safeguards and sufficient product transparency and accountability needs to be a part of SAFE Banking or any major marijuana legislation.
2024 National Policy Statement on Hemp: The federal government has a responsibility to enact child safety measures and basic product safeguards on intoxicating products produced from hemp and CBD allowed by the vagueness created by the 2018 U.S. Farm Bill. States and local jurisdictions should have the right to determine and implement additional safeguards but the federal government has the responsibility to enact national protections.
2024 Rescheduling Comments: There is no scientific justification for rescheduling the marijuana plant when it is the amount of the psychoactive component (THC) in the finished product that should be determined and, based on that analysis, a decision on which schedule to place the individual product should be made.
A Schedule III classification requires evidence of moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence and abuse, but evidence already shows the potential for severe physical and psychological addiction and abuse from even casual marijuana use (especially with high potency THC products).
2023 We Must Do More to Protect Kids When It Comes to Today’s Marijuana.
There’s a big difference between yesterday’s low THC products and today’s ultra-high THC products and strains. Yet, misinformation persists, increasing risks and harms, particularly for kids and young adults whose brains are still developing.
There is a big difference between decriminalization, legalization, and commercialization (allowing commercial production and sales, without adequate safeguards).
The past war on drugs unfairly targeted communities of color and the nation’s drug policies should address that. However, marijuana commercialization disproportionately hurts neighborhoods of color and the young people growing up there, creating new inequities.
The words “marijuana” and/or “cannabis” don’t adequately describe today’s new high THC products, which include kid-friendly easily concealable forms like dissolvable powders, vapes, inhalers, suppositories or marijuana concentrates that can reach THC potencies of 98%.
A National THC Transparency Bill Should Include
Restrictions on packaging and types of products
Consumer-Safety Measures
Restrictive Advertising
Restrictions on advertising and marketing that could reach kids
Fees and Penalties for Targeting and Selling to Minors
National reporting of violations
Public Education
Fund national public awareness campaign focused on preventing underage use and informing pregnant and breastfeeding women of known harms
Research and Date Monitoring
Direct CDC to gather data, monitor, assess, and publicly report on health impacts of THC use during childhood and adolescence, including de-identified data on toxicology screens for individuals under 21 who died by suicide
