A new study confirms that marijuana use in early adolescence is related to multiple problems, including delinquency and other substance abuse in later adolescence.  “Our findings suggest that early marijuana use is correlated with later deviance beyond the effect of earlier similar behavior,”   said the authors of the study.
The study was based on interviews with about 1,200 inner-city young people five years after they responded to a questionnaire about drug use, attitudes towards drugs, behavior difficulties and family issues.  The researchers found a significant increase in problem behaviors, such as violence, inability to function at work or school, risk-taking and dropping out of school, among adolescents who reported marijuana use at least once per month during the initial survey.
According to Brook, the link between early marijuana use and long-term substance abuse was highlighted “by an almost four-fold increase in the likelihood of problems with cigarettes and a more than doubling of the odds of alcohol and marijuana problems.”
Researchers recommended the creation of effective treatment strategies to help reduce current and future problems for early users of marijuana.