cannabisnews.com: Early Marijuana Use Risks Confirmed





Early Marijuana Use Risks Confirmed
Posted by FoM on October 05, 1999 at 11:30:58 PT
Source: Reuters Health
NEW YORKUsing marijuana in early adolescence appears to increase the likelihood that the user's later adolescence will be marked by multiple problems including delinquency and substance abuse, according to a report published in the October issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
Dr. Judith S. Brook and colleagues at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, interviewed nearly 1,200 inner-city young people 5 years after they initially responded to a questionnaire about drug use, attitudes towards drugs, behavior difficulties, and family issues. ``Our findings suggest that early marijuana use is correlated with later deviance beyond the effect of earlier similar behavior,'' the authors write.What the team terms ``problem behaviors'' -- such as violence, the inability to appropriately function at work or school, risk-taking, and dropping out of school -- were found to be significantly increased among those adolescents who reported marijuana use of at least once per month during the initial survey.The link between early marijuana use and long-term substance abuse was demonstrated by ``an almost 4-fold increase in the likelihood of problems with cigarettes and a more than doubling of the odds of alcohol and marijuana problems,'' Brook and colleagues note.Yet, ``there was no increase in the risk of (later) problems with other illegal drugs,'' according to the investigators. Citing numerous studies that indicate a substantial risk of such problems indeed occurring, the researchers theorize that in the current study, ``a sufficient number of marijuana users had not used enough other illegal drugs (during the 5-year interval) to have developed problems attributable to them.''Particularly worrisome was the finding that early marijuana use correlated with ``having more than 1 sexual partner and not always using condoms,'' practices that ``heighten the risks of contracting HIV,'' as well as other sexually transmitted diseases, the researchers point out.They conclude that ``assessments of marijuana use should be incorporated into clinical practice with adolescents'' and effective treatment strategies developed to help stem current and future problems for this early user population.Tuesday October 5, 1999SOURCE: American Journal of Public Health 199989:1549-1554. Copyright © 1996-1999 Reuters Limited.
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on October 05, 1999 at 13:46:19 PT
Interesting
That is an interesting thought. I don't know though. We didn't have that problem. I'm sure someone will know. One thing that concerns me about juvenile marijuana smoking is the possibility of coming too close to hard drugs and since marijuana seems totally harmless after all the hype they'll think they aren't telling the truth about other drugs that do have some serious side effects including addiction and death.
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Comment #1 posted by Thomas on October 05, 1999 at 13:02:29 PT
Correlation Vs. Causation
Does smoking cannabis lead to being a troubled youth or does being a troubled youth lead to smoking cannabis?Ponder this analogy. Almost every motorcycle rider started out riding a bike but does riding a bike lead to motorcycle riding?
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