Psychologists investigating the public health consequences of marijuana legalization have discovered a hyperlink between frequent cannabis use and cognitive decline, inattentiveness, memory decay and decreased IQ in teenagers.
The findings, that have been presented recently throughout the American Psychological Association’s 122nd Annual Convention, found that brain imaging studies of standard marijuana users revealed significant alterations in their brain structure, specially when it comes to adolescents.
According to Dr. Krista Lisdahl, director from the brain imaging and neuropsychology lab at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, those scans revealed abnormalities in gray matter (the part of the brain related to intelligence) in 16- to 19-year-old teenagers who had increased their cannabis use in the last year.
Those results remained despite researchers controlled for variables for example serious health conditions, prenatal exposure to drugs and learning disabilities, she added. That could be problematic, given that recent studies show that marijuana use among senior high school seniors had climbed from 2.4 % in 1993 to six.Five percent this year, that 31 percent of teenagers between 18 and 25 reported while using drug within the last month.
“It must be emphasized that regular cannabis use, which we consider once per week, is not safe and could result in addiction and neurocognitive damage, particularly in youth,” Dr. Lisdahl said inside a statement Saturday. “When considering legalization, policymakers have to address ways to prevent quick access to marijuana and supply additional treatment funding for adolescent and teen users.”
Citing a 2012 longitudinal study to come over 1,000 participants from birth to age 38, Dr. Lisdahl noted that men and women who become hooked on marijuana can lose an average of six IQ points by adulthood.
Her presentation, “Neurocognitive Consequences of Chronic Marijuana Use: Preventing Early Onset Is crucial,” was one of three at the conference’s “Considering Cannabis? Potential Public Health Implications of Marijuana Legalization” symposium, held Saturday at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Dc.
Also in the conference, Dr. Alan Budney of Darthmouth College warned that some legalized forms of marijuana contained higher research levels of THC C the substance responsible for the majority of its psychological effects. In his presentation, entitled “Clinical Epidemiology, Characteristics, Services and Outcomes for Youth With Cannabis-Use Disorders,” he explained that THC can increase the risk of depression, anxiety and psychosis in regular pot users.
“Recent studies suggest that this relationship between marijuana and mental illness may be moderated because when often marijuana can be used and potency from the substance,” he was quoted saying. “Unfortunately, much of what we know from earlier scientific studies are based on smoking marijuana with much lower doses of THC than are generally used today.”
People’s willingness to accept legalized medical marijuana has also had an impact how risky adolescents perceive the substance to be, Dr. Bettina Friese of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation in California explained in her seminar, “Is Legalization of Medicinal marijuana Related to Youths’ Marijuana Beliefs and Behaviors?”
Dr. Friese presented outcomes of a 2013 study well over 17,000 Montana teenagers that discovered marijuana use among teens was higher in counties in which a greater percentage of people had voted to legalize the substance for medicinal purposes in 2004. Furthermore, teens residing in those counties were less likely to view cannabis use as dangerous, suggesting that a more accepting attitude of medical marijuana might have a level stronger effect on teens compared to actual quantity of medical marijuana licenses available, she added.
In February researchers reported that legalizing the use of marijuana resulted in a dramatic rise in the amount of children requiring emergency medical assistance for contact with the drug. That study discovered that unintentional marijuana exposures to children under the age of 10 had increased 30.3 % from 2005 to 2011 in states where its use had been legalized.
“Pediatricians, toxicologists and emergency physicians need to be willing to advocate for the safety of children to lawmakers because this burgeoning industry expands over the US,” said lead author Dr. George Sam Wang from the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center in Colorado. “As more states decriminalize marijuana, lawmakers should consider requirements C for example child-resistant packaging, warning labels and public education C to lessen the probability of ingestion by young children.”
