DALLAS - A new app for Android phones has North Texas drug counselors asking, "What were they thinking?"
The app is called Roll a Joint, allowing users to make their own virtual marijuana cigarettes. The counselors said it will send the wrong message to teenaged kids.
The app was developed by Full Duplex Packet, also known as FDP Games, a company with little information on their website, other than its three games, which all center around drug use.
"Anything that would encourage people to use younger, or to start using a drug is concerning," said Brenda Iliff, Clinical Director of the Caron Texas Treatment Center in Princeton.
Iliff said the app promotes drug use, especially to teenagers.
"Part of the concern is that as a society, we don't take marijuana addiction seriously," Iliff said. "And we know it can really hurt people."
Roll a Joint is available on the Android Market for $1.99. It is advertised as "an app your friends can't get on their iPhones." That is because Apple's App Store banned FDP's first two games: Smoke a Bowl and Nose Candy.
"This is something a kid could download or anyone, and no one would really know they're doing it, particularly their parents," Iliff said.
The counselor said marijuana is widely known as a gateway drug. She has seen many patients who started off smoking it and wound up addicted to hard drugs.
While the new virtual roll-your-own app may seem amusing to some folks, to her, it is anything but funny and a real problem.
E-mail sstoler@wfaa.com
