Marijuana: What's new?

October 12, 2016

Maureen Fitzgerald, Editor
ATTC Network Coordinating Office/NIATx


Marijuana continues to make headlines daily, and it can be hard to stay on top of the latest news about marijuana research, trends, and legalization. To help you stay in the know, we've collected some of the most recent and relevant resources and news items in one compact blog post.

1. "Does smoking marijuana make me stupid?"

Short answer: Yes.

Find this infographic and more on the
ATTC Network's Marijuana Lit page! 

A recent Canadian study adds to the body of research showing that marijuana does affect IQ. This is one study to turn to when talking to teens and others who think that marijuana is harmless.

Read more about it in this brief from Science Daily:
Early marijuana use associated with abnormal brain function, lower IQ

2. But it really won't hurt me. That's the prevailing attitude about marijuana among 12-17 year-olds in the U.S. today. Find out more about efforts to change teens' attitudes:
CAPT webinar focuses on changing youth perceptions of marijuana risk. 
And here's a link to the webinar recording:
Preventing Youth Marijuana Use: Changing Perception of Risk

Dr. Kari Franson tells more about marijuana's affect on teens (and their IQs) in this video in the ATTC Network's Marijuana Lit series: Youth and Families. 

And it's not just kids who think that: That's based on an analysis of National Survey on Drug Use and Health data collected from 2002 to 2014. Read all about it: Increasing number of US adults using marijuana as few people perceive the drug as harmful

And Dr. Wilson Compton tells more about how marijuana affects people young and old in the Marijuana Lit video: Marijuana's Effects on the Body.

Keeping it Simple: The NIATx Process Improvement Model Revisited

October 4, 2016

Scott Gatzke
NIATx Coach

Director, ElderTree Dissemination

The late Peter Drucker, an influential business thought leader and educator, once stated:

Almost all quality improvement comes via simplification of design and processes.

Recently, I was reminded of the simple elegance of NIATx model.
A friend came to me and asked what I would do if faced with the following problem:

His organization struggled to make timely improvements to their operations. When a change was finally implemented, it often reverted back to the old process after a few months.

Having guided change teams for years in organizations both large and small, I was all too familiar with the challenge he presented.