 The Evergreen Youth Conference made a return to the Samford Center in Bemidji and this year more than 400 people are expected to attend. Our Cheryl Moore took a look at day one. We like to host this in Bemidji because I think for a lot of people in this line of work they often go to Minneapolis or they often go to place like St. Cloud for something like this and it gives them an opportunity to see a different part of the state. The 13th annual Evergreen Conference starts today with a packed house of professionals eager to learn about more ways to help our youth. What we try to do is reach across the state and even outside of the state of Minnesota to individuals and agencies who work with youth and families. That type of work is becoming it's always been in a big need but it's becoming more and more complicated by lots of different issues one of which would be like the opioid epidemic. This year's keynote speaker was Ken Winters. He spoke about the effects of marijuana usage in teens. I focused on three things one is on the potential to get addicted to the drug which looks to be elevated if you start using as a teenager. Second impact was on cognitive functioning particularly memory and and general intelligence. Then the third was mental health and how the importance of staying away from marijuana if you already are at risk for a mental illness. This year there are more than 20 boosts from agencies all over the state. Not to mention breakout sessions. The Evergreen Conference arrived day one up at five today but the event will be back tomorrow. The planning process for this event is it's a full year process so as soon as this one's done we'll start talking about how it's going to look for next year. Reporting in Bemidji, Shawmore, Lakeland News. The conference will start back up again tomorrow morning beginning at 9 a.m. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.