May 18, 2023 – Recreational marijuana use by teens is just not as harmless as many individuals appear to imagine, at the same time as it becomes increasingly legal on this country, say the authors of a latest study.
Teens who use cannabis recreationally are two to 3 times more more likely to experience depression and suicidal thoughts than teens who don’t use it. And teens with cannabis use disorder – meaning they can not stop using despite health and social problems – are 4 times more more likely to have the identical thoughts and feelings.
The study was published in Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)The study examined information from 68,000 teenagers within the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.
Marijuana use has also been linked to other problems, including poor school performance, truancy and trouble with the police.
“Year after year, children are becoming more and more likely to believe that marijuana is safe and harmless – which is factually incorrect,” said the study's lead creator, Ryan Sultan, MD, assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University. Yahoo Life.
The child psychiatrist said he was surprised that recreational users were at much higher risk of mental health problems. “We usually assume that recreational use is not a worrying behavior,” he said.
The aim of the study was not to clarify the connection between mental health problems and cannabis use.
“The more you use it, the more negatively it affects your thinking. That increases the likelihood of depression and suicidal thoughts,” Sultan said. “It's a feedback loop that cascades downward and gets to a point that really concerns us as child psychiatrists.”
Sultan said parents should discuss with their children about marijuana use, depression and anxiety.