Many people have said that the marijuana smoked by today’s teens and young adults is a far cry from the pot their parents smoked. A new study of teens in Australia shows just how damaging the pot smoked by today’s teens and young adults can be.
Just like America, Australia has a serious problem with marijuana use by young people. Researchers at the University of New South Wales carried out a study of the effects of drug use on 3,765 young Australians. Researchers monitored their marijuana use habits from before the age of 17 until they were 30 and then analyzed the information to learn about suicide attempts, success in school and use of other illicit drugs.
Those people who used marijuana daily suffered some serious impacts from this drug abuse. When compared to those who did not use the drug, they were:
• Seven times more likely to attempt suicide
• Sixty percent less likely to complete school
• Eight times more likely to use another illicit drug.
The researchers stated that they hoped this information would be taken into account by anyone considering legalization of the drug.
Some parents are not quite sure if they should be concerned with their teenaged children’s marijuana use or not. But let’s go back for a moment to the concept that this drug is pretty different from the drug these parents might have been exposed to. Potency of this drug has increased dramatically and will continue to increase as marijuana growers compete for business. This list of serious adverse effects from daily smoking should alert parents to the dangers of using this drug and encourage them to take action.
One note – these serious results occurred to those smoking pot daily. This doesn’t mean that smoking marijuana less frequently would be harmless. It is only likely to mean that the harm is less. Whether it’s more harm or less harm, our young people deserve the chance to grow up sober, successful and free from the harm of this drug. That takes educating them on the risks before they make drug use a habit. We have information on our website that can help. To access a variety of articles on marijuana, visit the Narconon website at http://www.narconon.org/drug-abuse/marijuana/.
