Lately, there has been a large amount of research come to light about the hazards of smoking marijuana among your young children and teens. This research, funded by various government entities in several countries, paints a picture of the future of pot-smoking children that is horrifying.
Here’s some of the facts:
- A boy or girl who is smoking marijuana at 13 is likely to earn less money as a young adult than peers who aren’t abusing the drug.
- An adolescent who smokes less marijuana than a friend but enjoys the experience more is likelier to be addicted to the drug at 21.
These are findings from two recent studies that looked at adult outcomes associated with marijuana abuse in adolescence:
“The bad news is that if you start marijuana use by age 13, even if you eventually decrease your usage, you are likely to have a lower income and lower level of schooling by age 29,” Dr. David Fergusson of the Christchurch School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Christchurch, New Zealand, reported.
- The results indicate that the pleasure of early use, not how much marijuana is used, determines the likelihood of later addiction.
“There are people smoking a lot of marijuana who aren’t addicted to it,” Dr. Fergusson explains. “Others are smoking less but are addicted or headed for addiction.”
Marijuana is the most commonly abused illicit drug, with 14.6 million (6.2 percent of the population) persons currently abusing the drug.
There is a large body of evidence that substance abuse significantly predicts the later occurrence of psychiatric disorders, including major depressive disorder (MDD), alcohol dependence, and substance use disorders (SUD)… (reported by Dr. Judith S. Brook and Dr. David W. Brook of New York’s Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Dr. Patricia Cohen of Columbia University, also in New York).
All of these excerpts from numerous reports all point to one chilling fact:
- Earlier marijuana and tobacco use were each more strongly related to user’s development of major depressive disorders in their late twenties than more recent use of these substances.
Marijuana use in children and young adults is not a benign experience. Most young users believe that smoking marijuana is not as bad as smoking tobacco. The truth is that both are equally deadly and use of either, or both, when young bodies are developing into adults almost guarantees mental and emotional problems in young adulthood.
Scientists have found that thought processes are damaged from smoking marijuana and can last up to at least 28 days after a user last smoked the drug. Those with lower IQs incur more mental damage than those with higher ones. The more the user smoked before stopping, the longer the mental impairment lasts.
NIDA)-supported researchers (National Institute on Drug Abuse) have reported new evidence about the use of tobacco and alcohol…once the use of tobacco or alcohol begins, there is a much greater likelihood of marijuana use…and once marijuana use begins, there is greater likelihood of other illegal drug use. Prior marijuana use was closely associated with the opportunity to try cocaine and the likelihood of young people’s starting to use cocaine once given the opportunity.
The thing to remember here is that marijuana and/or tobacco use at a young age helps your children slide down the path to reduced mental function, lack of a secure future and severe drug addiction. It’s all up to you and your children are not too young to learn the truth about pot smoking.
(Resources: NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse), NIH (National Institute of Health), White House Drug Policy, DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration), USDOJ (US Department of Justice), and others.)
You have the right to give this report away freely. You may use it as a bonus item on your website, email it to your list and distribute it as you wish, as long as you do not sell it, claim authorship or change it in any way, including the author’s resource box below.
Pat Graham is the author of the eBook: “Child Drug Addicts – Save Them While You Can”
Get a copy at www.ChildDrugAddicts.com …plus free articles and more information.
© 2011 by Pat Graham – All Rights Reserved
To download a pdf copy of this article please CLICK HERE.
