Many Bay Area physicians who recommend medical marijuana to their patients stated in recent interviews that their customer base had expanded to include teens with psychiatric conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

"It is not everyone's medication, but for many, it may make a profound difference," said Valerie Corral, a creator of their Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, a physician' collective in Santa Cruz which includes two dozen minors as enrolled customers.

Since California does not require physicians to report cases involving medical marijuana, no reliable statistics exist for the number of minors are approved to obtain it. However, Dr. Jean Talleyrand, who based MediCann, a community in Oakland of 20 clinics that authorize patients to utilize the medication, said his team members had medicated as many as 50 patients ages 14 to 18 who'd A.D.H.D. Bay Area physicians have been in the forefront of their fierce debate about medical marijuana, winning tolerance for individuals with grave ailments such as terminal cancer and AIDS. Yet since these physicians use their discretion liberally, such assistance - much here - could be more difficult to muster, particularly in regards to using marijuana to treat teenagers with A.D.H.D.

"Just how many ways can you say'one of the worst ideas of all time?''"Requested Stephen Hinshaw, the chairman of the psychology department in the University of California, Berkeley. He cited studies demonstrating that tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the active ingredient in cannabis, disrupts focus, concentration and memory - works already compromised in people with the attention-deficit disease.

Advocates are only as adamant, although they're in a distinct minority. It is safer than aspirin," Dr. Talleyrand said. He along with other marijuana advocates assert it is also safer than methylphenidate (Ritalin), the stimulant drug most often utilised to deal with A.D.H.D.. That drug has recorded possible side effects like insomnia, depression, facial tics and stunted growth.

In 1996, voters approved a ballot proposal making California the first state to legalize medical marijuana. Twelve other countries have followed suit - permitting cannabis for many specified, serious ailments such as cancer and AIDS - but just California adds to the grab-bag term"for any other illness for which marijuana offers relief."

It has left those physicians keen to"urge" cannabis - from the Alice-in-Wonderland world of medical marijuana, they can't legally prescribe it with leeway that some usage to a daring level."You may get it to get a backache," said Keith Stroup, the creator of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

However, expanding its usage among young people is contentious even among physicians who snore medical marijuana.

Gene Schoenfeld, a physician in Sausalito, stated,"I would not do it for anybody under 21, unless they have a life-threatening issue like cancer or AIDS."

Dr. Schoenfeld added,"It is detrimental to teens who use this, and when it is being used clinically, that suggests chronic usage"

Dr. Nora D. Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, said she had been especially concerned about the chance of dependence - a threat she stated was high among teenagers and individuals with attention-deficit disease.

Counterintuitive as it might look, nevertheless, patients and physicians are reporting that marijuana helps relieve a few of the symptoms, especially the anger and anxiety that often accompany A.D.H.D.. The disease was diagnosed with over 4.5 million kids in the USA, in accordance with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Scientists have linked the use of marijuana by teens to greater risk of psychosis and schizophrenia to get individuals genetically predisposed to those disorders. But, one 2008 report from the journal Schizophrenia Research indicated the prevalence of mental health issues among teens with the disease that used marijuana was lower than that of nonusers.

Marijuana is"a godsend" for many people with A.D.H.D., stated Dr. Edward M. Hallowell, a psychiatrist who has written a few publications on the disease. But, Dr. Hallowell said he amuses his patients from using it, both because it's - largely - prohibited, and since his observations demonstrate that"it may result in a syndrome where the individual would like to do all day is becoming stoned, and they do nothing else."

Until age 18, patients asking medical marijuana has to be followed to the physician's appointment and into the dispensaries with a parent or licensed caregiver. Some physicians interviewed said they guessed that in some situations, parents had been accompanying their kids mainly with the expectation that medical consent would permit the teens to prevent purchasing drugs on the road.

A current University of Michigan study found that over 40% of high school students had tried marijuana.

"I really don't have an issue with this, so long as we could have our healthcare dialog," Dr. Talleyrand said, adding that patients should have medical documents to be observed by his physicians.

The Medical Board of California started investigating Dr. Talleyrand from the spring, '' said a board spokeswoman, Candis Cohen, following a KGO-TV report detailed questionable practices at MediCann clinics, and that, the report stated, had grossed at least $10 million in five decades.

Dr. Talleyrand and his team members aren't alone in being prepared to recommend marijuana for minors. Back in Berkeley, Dr. Frank Lucido said that he had been questioned by the medical board but finally not disciplined after he approved bud to get a 16-year-old boy with A.D.H.D. who'd attempted Ritalin unsuccessfully and was racking up a listing of small arrests.

Within a year of this new therapy, he explained, the boy had been getting better scores and was elected president of the special-education class. "He had been telling his mom:'My mind functions.I am able to believe,'" Dr. Lucido said.

Nevertheless, MediCann patients that get the consent should sign a form record potential downsides of marijuana usage, such as"psychological slowness," memory difficulties, anxiety, confusion,"increased talkativeness," rapid heartbeat, difficulty in completing complicated tasks and appetite. "Some individuals can become determined by marijuana," the kind also cautions.

The White House's current signs of more national tolerance for state medical marijuana legislation - that pointedly increased sales to minors - reignited the debate over medical marijuana.

Some advocates, such as Dr. Lester Grinspoon, an associate professor emeritus of psychiatry at Harvard University, imply that clinical marijuana's stigma has less to do with concerns about clinical efficacy and much more related to its institution, in popular culture, together with illegal pleasure and dependence.

Others, such as Alberto Torrico of Fremont, the Vast Majority leader of the California Assembly, assert for more supervision Generally. "The bud is a good deal more successful nowadays than when we were growing up, and a lot of has been doled out for nonmedical reasons," he explained in an interview a week, bluntly including,"Any kids being granted medical marijuana is improper."

As advocates of greater approval try to acquire support, they might locate their serious arguments endangered by the dispensaries' lively atmosphere.

OrganiCann, a dispensary in Santa Rosa, has an Internet site advertisement list the"medible of this week" - butterscotch rock candy - invitingly photographed in a gift box with a ribbon. OrganiCann also provides a 10 percent reduction, each Friday, for clients with a valid student ID.