Adolescent Protection

Children and adolescents should not use cannabis or psilocybin.

This is not a concession to prohibition. It is a structural requirement from AP33 (The Boundary). The adolescent brain is in Pre-Agency transition to Active Agency.

The prefrontal cortex — responsible for executive function, impulse control, and long-term planning — does not fully mature until approximately age 25. During this critical development window, exogenous cannabinoids may alter neural pruning, connectivity, and cognitive development.

The specific mechanism: prefrontal cortex myelination — the insulation of neural pathways that enables adult executive function — continues until approximately age 25. Exogenous modulation of the ECS or serotonin system during this window may alter the trajectory of myelination itself, not merely the signals passing through the pathways.

The signal is contested but sufficient to trigger the precautionary principle.

The derivation’s position: cannabis and psilocybin should carry age restrictions at least as strict as alcohol (21+ in most jurisdictions), with the structural justification that a developing node’s coupling architecture must be allowed to form before it is modulated.

This is the same logic as AP33’s consent architecture: you cannot consent to modifying a system you do not yet have the modelling capacity to understand.

Adults make their own choices about their own bodies. Below ε, the individual is sovereign. Children are not yet sovereign — they are nodes in formation. The organism protects forming nodes.