Young people start using marijuana for many reasons.
Curiosity, peer pressure, and the desire to fit in with
friends are common ones. Those who have already begun
to smoke cigarettes or use alcohol, or who have untreated
mental health conditions (such as depression, anxiety, or
ADHD), or who have experienced trauma are at
increased risk for marijuana use.
For some, drug use begins as a means of coping with
anxiety, anger, depression, or boredom. But, in fact,
being high can be a way of simply avoiding the problems
and challenges of growing up. Parents, grandparents, and
older siblings are models that children follow, and
research suggests that family members’ use of alcohol
and drugs plays a strong role in whether a young person
starts using drugs. Indeed, all aspects of a teen’s environment—home, school, and community—can
influence if he or she will try drugs.
How can I prevent my child from using
marijuana?
There is no quick or simple solution for preventing teen
drug use. But research shows parents have a big influence
on their teens, even when it doesn’t seem that way. Talk
openly with your children and stay actively engaged in
their lives.
To help you get started, the next section provides some
key points about marijuana research findings that you can
share with your kids to help them sort out fact from myth
and help them make the best decisions they can.
Did you know?
Marijuana has negative effects on attention, motivation,
memory, and learning that can persist after the drug's immediate effects wear off—especially in people who
use regularly.
Marijuana can be addictive. Despite common belief,
repeated marijuana use can lead to addiction, which
means that people can have trouble quitting, even if it is
having a negative impact on their lives. Research
suggests that about 30 percent of people who use
marijuana have some level of marijuana use disorder
even if they are not yet addicted.1 People who begin
using marijuana before the age of 18 are more likely to
develop a marijuana use disorder than adults.Marijuana is
unsafe if you're behind the wheel. Marijuana impairs
judgment and many other skills needed for safe driving:
alertness, concentration, coordination, and reaction time.
Marijuana use makes it difficult to judge distances and
react to signals and sounds on the road. Marijuana is the
most commonly identified illegal drug in deadly crashes,
sometimes in combination with alcohol or other drugs.
By itself, marijuana is thought to roughly double a
driver's chances of being in a crash, and the combination of marijuana and even small amounts of alcohol is even
more dangerous more so than either substance alone.
Marijuana is linked to school failure, lower income, and
poorer quality of life. Marijuana has negative effects on
attention, motivation, memory, and learning that can
persist after the drug's immediate effects wear off—
especially in people who use regularly. Someone who
uses marijuana daily may be functioning at a reduced
intellectual level most or all of the time. Compared with
their nonsmoking peers, students who use marijuana are
more likely to drop out of high school.People who use
marijuana regularly for a long time report decreased
overall life satisfaction, including poorer mental and
physical health, memory and relationship problems,
lower salaries, and less career success.
Marijuana is linked to some mental illnesses. Although
scientists don't yet fully understand how the use of
marijuana might impact the development of mental
illness, high doses can bring on a panic attack or even
acute psychosis—thinking that is detached from reality,
sometimes including hallucinations. In people who
already have the severe mental illness schizophrenia
(involving symptoms such as hallucinations, paranoia,
and disorganized thinking), marijuana use can worsen its
symptoms. Also, evidence suggests that early marijuana
use may increase the risk of psychotic disorders among
those at higher genetic risk for these disorders.
No comments:
Post a Comment