Today is 988 Day – please share 988 Day (September 8) is a national initiative dedicated to raising awareness about the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline and emphasizing the importance of mental health and suicide prevention. Whatever you’re facing, big or small, your reason for seeking support is reason enough. I wish 988 had been around when Johnny took his life – maybe he might have texted or called to talk with someone when he was feeling suicidal. Call or text 988, 24 hours a day/7 days a week. JohnnysAmbassadors.org

Please help us fund three very important initiatives to prevent youth THC use this coming year! p2p.onecause.com/ja2026 It's that time of year again - time for the Johnny's Ambassadors annual fundraiser! We hold this event once a year during Suicide Prevention Month to help us fund our most pressing upcoming needs to save our youth from the harms of THC. Our goal is to raise $100,000 by September 30, 2026, for the following initiatives: ​1. School Assemblies We have a long list of schools that would LOVE to have an assembly, but they don't have the budget or the grant funding to allow them to bring Johnny's Ambassadors to their school. So, this year, we are raising funds to help schools in need! We'll give $50,000 of the goal in scholarships for middle and high school assemblies for those on our waiting list. The scholarship will waive the $5000 assembly fee, and schools will only pay a flat fee to cover travel costs. Please see below for a sample of some of those eager schools and why they are excited to receive your scholarship! ​2. Evidence-Based Designation We need $25,000 to have our assemblies and online curriculum evaluated for evidence-based training. We already have the pre- and post-assessment work done, so we have a neutral outside university lined up to evaluate our data under their statistician and publish the results. This evidence-based certification will allow us to apply for more grant-based and federal funding to help even more students in the future. ​3. TikTok Video Targeting We are seeking $25,000 in funding to work with a media company on a new technology called "geo fencing," to directly serve up educational content to teens who go to school within a particular radius of a city. We are starting with hot spots in Denver, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Seattle. A 90-minute radius is drawn around those cities, so hundreds of thousands of teens will receive ads to their device via TikTok and websites they visit afterward. The call to action will allow them to join Johnny's Ambassadors’ new national youth leadership council! p2p.onecause.com/ja2026

Welcome to National Marijuana Facts Week! JohnnysAmbassadors.org/nmfw The Association Between Major Depressive Disorder and Cannabis Use Disorder: A Meta-Analysis and Meta-Regression Analysis A 2026 study in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, which reviewed the findings of 55 prior studies, found that approximately 31% of individuals with cannabis use disorder (CUD) had major depressive disorder (MDD). The study, led by researchers in Brazil, also found that approximately 10% of people with MDD had CUD. The researchers concluded that “cannabis use may exacerbate depressive symptoms, while individuals with MDD are at an increased risk of developing CUD.” This study helps to illustrate how marijuana use and depression often exacerbate each other, highlighting why policymakers should further invest in prevention and treatment interventions. sciencedirect.com/science/ar…

Looking for a way to get involved in Johnny’s Ambassadors mission to educate parents, teens, and communities about the impacts of today’s high potency THC products (marijuana, dabs, vapes, edibles) on youth brain development, psychosis, and suicidal thinking? Announcing our 12 Days of Advocacy, where we give you a dozen ways for Johnny’s Ambassadors to advocate in your local community! Each day’s email will feature a cartoon with a hidden QR code for you to “open” your gift that day! Your gift to Johnny’s Ambassadors this holiday season will be any help you can provide in helping us spread the word about the harms of youth THC use and supporting us in our mission! 12 Days of Advocacy - Day 1 Plan a Community Screening of Our Cannabis-Induced Psychosis Documentary This film by Johnny’s Ambassadors offers a candid and intimate look at cannabis-induced psychosis through the eyes of young people who lived it, revealing the silent epidemic that’s tearing apart families, and the long path to recovery. This film is appropriate for adults, as well as middle and high school students. This 45-minute film is FREE to show from this page. You have explicit, blanket permission to show it in any public setting without specific approval from Johnny’s Ambassadors. Audience Q&A are below for screenings in your community, moderated by a clinician or community coalition. Add a panel discussion with local law enforcement, medical professionals, school personnel, and therapists to discuss their experiences with youth THC use in their areas. Cannabis-Induced Psychosis: A Silent Epidemic documentary pulls back the curtain on a crisis that too often goes unnamed. Told through the voices of young people who’ve lived through psychosis and the parents who tried to hold them together, the film offers an unflinching look at how high-potency THC can fracture lives and upend futures. Families walk us through the hardest moments of their lives as they watch their kids unravel, search for help, and face a system with few answers. Doctors offer clinical insight, while the young people themselves reflect on what it felt like to lose touch with reality and how they found their way back. This film is provided by the nonprofit, Johnny’s Ambassadors, as a community service to raise public awareness of the dangers of youth THC use. johnnysambassadors.org/cip/

Nearly six years ago, on November 20, 2019, my beloved 19-year-old son, Johnny, took his life. As many of you know, he had a psychotic episode from using high-potency THC concentrates. I can’t believe it’s been six years. So much has happened. The pain isn’t as sharp as before, but I still miss him every day and sometimes I still can’t believe he’s gone. How can this possibly have happened? When Johnny was experiencing Cannabis-Induced Psychosis, we couldn’t find anyone to help us. No one understood what was happening or that it was related to his THC use. No one told him to stop. No one thought it was addictive or that marijuana could do that. Insurance wouldn’t pay for anything, and there were no “treatment” programs, because hey, it wasn’t addictive. The doctors all said his psychosis and suicidality had to be the onset of schizophrenia, even though we have no mental illness in our family. Sadly, after he died, we learned so much more about the connection between youth THC use, brain development, addiction, psychosis, and suicide. So, Johnny’s Ambassadors was born after Johnny died—not a very good replacement—but better than crying for the rest of my life. Six years later, here’s what I know. What happened to Johnny was 100% preventable. If Johnny had never started using marijuana, he would still be here today. I firmly believe with all my heart if I knew then what I know now, we could have saved him. Johnny was a great kid who made some bad decisions. But he was a victim. He should never have had access to this poison in Colorado—the first state to legalize it—when he was 14 years old. That’s why Johnny’s Ambassadors exists. To keep your child from going down that path. To try to help parents whose children are going through it. To try to prevent teens from trying it in the first place. To save lives. And it’s working with the ones we touch. We need to reach more! I personally give over 200 school assemblies and conference presentations each year and have talked to nearly half a million teens, and we have over 250 trainers around the U.S. The word is getting out through our television and radio PSAs, streaming ads, nationwide press, Scholastic magazine, teen social media influencers, and all the educational programs your donations support. When I stand in the gym or auditorium in front of hundreds or thousands of teens at a school, I see on their sweet faces the same hopes, dreams, and goals that Johnny used to have. I’m so grateful to have the opportunity to share his warning with them, “Marijuana ruined my mind and my life.” ALL young people need to understand there is NO safe level of THC in the developing brain. We need your support to continue to provide teens with this important prevention message. Will you help with an end-of-year contribution to honor Johnny and the work he continues to do here on earth? As a small token of our appreciation for your donation of $25 of more, you will receive the recordings to our Johnny’s Ambassadors Youth THC Prevention Conference from June 2025. If you prefer to mail a check (EIN: 85-0593925), send it to Johnny's Ambassadors, 4242 Hickory Oaks Street, Castle Rock, CO 80104. Or text the word johnnystack to 5129205521. I promise you I will fight to save the lives of our children with every bit of strength I have left in my days. Thank you for supporting our work and giving me your love. It has saved me. Thank you for helping us save our youth from the harms of THC. Donate: p2p.onecause.com/johnnyangel

Thanks for the love, Conard and Hall High Schools in West Hartford, CT! Hundreds of you took the pledge to be #THCFree! Thank you for being Johnny's aAmbassadors and helping us spread the word about the harms of Youth THC use! Much love to you all. ♥️

The teen years are a very bad time to add THC to a forming brain! My next sentence after this clip cuts off is, "And by then, you'll likely decide not to try it at all." #StopDabbing #THCFreeLife #JustSayKnow #JohnnysAmbassadors

Is it NOT TRUE that "everyone" is using marijuana and THC in in schools! Just Say KNOW. #StopDabbing #THCFreeLife #JustSayKnow #JohnnysAmbassadors

Teens need to understand the weed of today is NOT the weed of their parents. From the 60s to the 80s, it was 1 to 2% potency. Today it averages 20% and can be up to 40%! And that's just the flower - we didn't have 80-99% concentrates like vapes and wax!

Parents of Children with Cannabis-Induced Psychosis (POCCIP) – Episode 22: Everything Started with THC My son Jesse was always highly sensitive, kind, empathic, articulate, and affectionate. He loved physical activity, lived for social connection, and was a gifted musician. Everyone loved Jesse, and he had wholesome, beautiful friends. In the last two years of high school, he was diagnosed as ADD and given medication. Academic pressure was creating huge anxiety, and unbeknownst to us, he started using THC when he was sixteen years old. As his use intensified, we noticed weight loss, disengagement from his family, bouts of aggression and risk-taking, and a loss of interest in exercise and his friends. As life got tougher, he used more, and his aggression continued to increase. We became more concerned, because he lived with us and refused help. He was no longer working and fluctuated between severe depression and anxiety. It was very clear that he had severe mental health challenges. Our beautiful boy was disappearing before our eyes. Before this happened, I didn’t know THC could cause psychosis. I learned what a broken mental health system we have when we tried to get him help. It took six months to finally get Jesse taken to hospital and have his psychosis taken seriously. It was so traumatic for our whole family. He was hospitalized for a month. We eventually showed the ambulance officers before and after photos regarding his psychosis for us to be taken seriously. Our system doesn’t know how to triage mental health, neurodivergence, and addiction. Often the issues that arise end up in the legal system, because of a lack of understanding of these three related areas. Neurodivergent kids are more vulnerable to both addiction and cannabis-induced psychosis, especially if using ADD medication. Jessie then turned to Meth. We have been on a hell ride rollercoaster since then. He has now had two more hospitalizations for psychosis. We have taken him through so many detoxes, but he walks out of rehab and returns to using cannabis and meth every time. He is twenty-three now and still an addict. Occasionally our soft, sweet son sometimes appears, but he his mostly lost in his tough rapper dude psychotic persona. It seems like he is possessed. As a mum, I constantly search for a way to help. But as the years go by, the more he medicates his self-hatred through drugs. Everything started with THC at 16. Cannabis Induced Psychosis is REAL. It happened to my child. Educate your child on the harms of THC at JohnnysAmbassadors.org. If you’re concerned about your child’s THC use, visit JohnnysAmbassadors.org/paren… join our private Parents of Children with Cannabis-Induced Psychosis (POCCIP) group at facebook.com/groups/POCCIP. #StopDabbing #THCFreeLife #JustSayKnow #JohnnysAmbassadors #cannabisinducedpsychosis #CIP