On Wednesday, Mayor Garcetti implements his revolutionary program, Fighting Chronic with Chronic (FCWC), where the government will give over 100 pounds of marijuana to several Los Angeles high schools to help girls dealing with eating disorders.
“Just think for a second if we somehow combined our youngsters with eating disorders with our youngsters who smoke pot. What do we have? A well-balanced child that is finally eating enough,” said Mayor Garcetti.
FCWC works on the principle that smoking weed encourages a healthy eating pattern as evidenced by many cancer patients who under chemotherapy smoke marijuana to boost their appetites.
People under the influence of at least 100 mg of THC consume on average more than 1200 calories than they would sober, according to a paper recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
With chronic eating disorders affecting as many as 20 million young girls and marijuana usage rates among teens up to 60 percent, many tout the program as a new era in problem solving.
“Americans have been looking at these issues separately when they should look at them together,” said FCWC founder and chairman Willie Chong. “As a young child we are always told that two wrongs don’t make a right. But the world is more complex than that. I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw other creative problem solving like this maybe fixing gang violence with illegal immigration.”
Still, there has been considerable backlash to the new program even inciting the creation of M.U.N.C.H.I.E.S. (Mothers Unconvinced New Chronic Helps Improve Eating Syndromes) and many parents and doctors questioning the validity of ‘hooking’ young kids on a drug.
But Mayor Garcetti has pointed to the effectiveness of Ritalin and Adderall in helping young children develop good grades and improve their behavior.
“Drugs can be abused like anything else but they can also help many cope with the stresses of life,” said Mayor Garcetti.
The program is still in its experimental stages with select Los Angeles high schools giving one-eighth ounce bags of marijuana to girls who report eating disorders.
“Only time will tell. But I think life is going to get better for lots of teens,” said FCWC founder Chong.