How Marijuana Affects Our Young People
There’s no doubt about it: Many of our young people use marijuana on a regular basis. The American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry reported only a few years ago that teenage marijuana usage was at its highest level in 30 years. A CDC study also showed high percentages of students reported past-year marijuana vaping—8% of eighth graders, 19% of 10th graders, and 22% of 12th graders.
While research on the effect of marijuana on young people is still in its early stages, some valuable lessons have already been learned.
Kids need open conversations more than punishments.
In Inside the Mayo Lab’s second episode, host David Magee recounted a conversation with a public school superintendent who was dealing with third graders vaping. On his students’ first offense, they watched a video on marijuana. On a second offense, they were suspended.
There were two problems with this, Magee explained. First, the video the students watched had old information and wouldn’t get through to them. Second, the punitive response wouldn’t truly address the issue.
“We have to get upstream,” Magee said.
Reactive, rather than preventative measures includes being open to honest—albeit hard—conversations with students. The more adults talk through these topics with students without judgment, the better students learn the tools to navigate them independently.
The science on marijuana isn’t definitively positive or negative.
In a recent episode with Dr. Nicole Ashpole, associate professor of Pharmacology at University of Mississippi, the Mayo Lab team dissected the science behind marijuana usage. Ashpole shared that research shows that marijuana can have benefits and risks. For example, it can help manage pain and anxiety for some, while exacerbating anxiety in others.
Understanding marijuana is complex, especially with research still in its infancy.
“When it’s becoming mainstream,” Ashpole said, “we need to have more and more studies that are done to try to understand what the short-term and long-term effects are going to be.
It can be difficult to find comprehensible, objective information on marijuana. Ashpole suggests the NIH’s page on cannabis for current science.
Teenagers are more likely to experience cannabis use disorder.
During the same episode, Ashpole explained how cannabis use disorder is more prevalent in adolescents who use the drug more often.
“A use disorder, whether it's alcohol use disorder or cannabis use disorder,” said Ashpole, “those are defined not just by having that addictive potential, but they're defined by us having cravings or feeling like, ‘You know what? I can’t get out of bed. I can't go to school if I don't smoke pot before I go,’ but also that you're willing to make riskier decisions to try to get to that.”
For parents concerned about their children having this dependence, Ashpole recommends addressing why they’re using marijuana. If it seems consistent or if there’s an underlying issue, connecting them with a doctor or therapist to “talk about mental health on a bigger picture” may be a good idea.
Though our understanding of marijuana’s effect on young people continues to unfold, early and up-to-date conversations with them about the drug, as well as their mental health, are deeply valuable. Children are more likely to feel comfortable coming to their parents with issues when their parents already talk to them about those topics in an uncritical, honest manner.
