Whether it is used for medical reasons or recreational \u201chighs,\u201d marijuana has become more than a controversial topic.\u00a0 Arguments for medical use and legalization press forward like an unstoppable force.\u00a0 Each day, proponents of marijuana reform seem to win another battle.<\/p>\n
But as a parent and youth drug abuse prevention specialist, I wonder how these social changes in the acceptance of marijuana will affect our children\u2019s future.<\/p>\n
Our generation likes to take credit for drug use because we grew up in the tumultuous 1960\u2019s and 1970\u2019s, though drugs have been used for thousands of years.\u00a0 The children of the 60\u2019s are now adults pushing for a revolution of the legal status of cannabis.<\/p>\n
But there is a very big difference between the marijuana of the 60\u2019s, 70\u2019s, and 80\u2019s, and the marijuana of our children\u2019s generation.\u00a0 Technological advances allow cannabis plants to be cultivated with much higher concentrations of psychotropic components.\u00a0 In other words, the street pot of today has an average of 8-13% THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol which causes the \u201chigh\u201d) as compared to 0.5-2% THC in the 1970\u2019s.\u00a0 Some of today\u2019s more expensive strains are created with THC levels in excess of 30%.<\/p>\n
No one really knows how this super-pot will affect our children as they grow into adulthood.\u00a0 We can+not fairly compare the effect of old 1960\u2019s pot on our generation to today\u2019s super-pot on this new generation. Scientists and medical professionals need time to study the long term effects of exposure to high THC levels on the developing adolescent brain.<\/p>\n
Longitudinal studies have indicated that teen exposure to low-THC marijuana increases risk of dependency, depression, anxiety, attention deficit, impaired learning, and defective memory. One such 30-year study published this spring showed that I.Q. drops an average of 8 points if a person begins using marijuana before the age of 18 and continues using marijuana to age 38.\u00a0 There was less I.Q. loss in the group of people who stopped using marijuana in adulthood.\u00a0 But the least I.Q. loss was in the group of people who did not start using marijuana until after the age of 18.\u00a0 This data indicates that adolescence is a vulnerable time for marijuana use.<\/p>\n
So now we need data on the adolescent brain with today\u2019s high potency marijuana. Well, there is a social experiment going on right now to study the effect of marijuana on today\u2019s adolescent brains.\u00a0 It is the medical marijuana and legalization reform movement that is going on across this country.\u00a0 More teenagers will be using marijuana due to loosening laws.\u00a0 The Colorado Department of Education reported that high school student use of marijuana has increased by 39% from 2008 to 2012.\u00a0 Middle school student use increased statewide by 50% from 2008 to 2012.<\/p>\n
Our children have become the unwitting guinea pigs to a national experiment.\u00a0 No waivers or consent forms for parents to sign.\u00a0 No disclosure of potential risks to our children\u2019s future.\u00a0\u00a0 We should have the results in about 20 years.<\/p>\n
Source: www.burlington.patch.com\u00a0 12th August 2013<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Whether it is used for medical reasons or recreational \u201chighs,\u201d marijuana has become more than a controversial topic.\u00a0 Arguments for medical use and legalization press forward like an unstoppable force.\u00a0 Each day, proponents of marijuana reform seem to win another battle. But as a parent and youth drug abuse prevention specialist, I wonder how these […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-parents","category-social-affairs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9064\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}