1
Substances marketed as “legal” or “natural” alternatives are increasingly accessible to adolescents through gas stations, convenience stores, and vape shops. Although legality may reassure consumers, pharmacists are seeing a growing disconnect between regulatory status and clinical risk. Products such as nitrous oxide inhalants, kratom, Delta-8 and Delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), and Salvia divinorum are associated with dependence, neurologic injury, psychiatric effects, and accidental harm—particularly in younger populations.1,2
As medication experts, pharmacists are uniquely positioned to recognize the public health implications of…