Marijuana Among Adolescents

The purpose of my paper is to prove that marijuana effects teens and their mind. Marijuana is a tobacco-like substance produced by drying the leaves, stems, flower tops of the Cannabis sativa (Indian Hemp) plant (Fact Sheet, 1). It is smoked or eaten to get hallucinated and receive pleasure. It grows just about anywhere. It is illegal in some countries but in others it is used for medical purposes (Encarta, 1). Some names that it is called a joint, nail, pot, Mary Jane, hive, etc. (Fact Sheet and Facts for teens, 1). Marijuana stays in the body for several days after one smoking session. In a chronic user marijuana can stay in the body for up to several weeks (Facts for Teens, 1).

Research has found that teenagers who used cigarettes were twelve times more likely to graduate to marijuana use. A similar study conducted by Denise Kandel (1992) revealed that use of marijuana affects dopamine levels in the brain in a similar way to nicotine. Cigarette smoking facilitates consumption of other substances. Smoking cigarettes initiate juveniles into the sensation of drug inhalation, which desensitizes them from the feeling of smoke clouding their lungs. This paper finds that marijuana pervades the life of a juvenile tobacco smoker. Teenagers who smoke cigarettes

In addition to increase public health problems, legalizing marijuana will lead to increase use of the drug among youngsters. Despite the regulatory approaches, legalizing marijuana has the inevitable effect of increasing the availability and consumption of the drug. Under the current prohibitions, the rate of consumption of marijuana among teenagers is already high; however, the rate of use would greatly increase if the drug was legitimately available to the population. For instance, despite the prohibitions against distribution of alcohol to teenagers, many youngsters who are under the legal age drink alcohol today. Similarly, high percentages of the young population are currently smokers even though the law prohibit them from buying cigarettes. Therefore, it is expected that the usage of marijuana among teenagers would increase if marijuana was legalized. Notably, the marijuana use will impair the development process of teenagers, which will negatively affect their health in later life. Thus, the increased use of marijuana among teenagers is a great concern. It will contribute to great dangers on the health of the youths.

There has been an extensive amount of research done on risk factors and marijuana use. Among adolescents the vast majority of the research has identified five major risk factors associated with adolescent marijuana use, family relations (parent-child attachment), peer associations, substance abuse programs, gender, and race. Some researchers have found that the family is the best predictor of adolescent marijuana use, while others claim that peer associations are predictors of adolescent marijuana use. Others believe that substance abuse programs are the key to deterring adolescent drug use. The final groups of researchers believe gender and race are the underlining predictors. The following studies will give a quick overview of the prior research on risk factors and adolescent marijuana use.

Youth is a time when individuals experiment with and get into trouble with psychoactive substances, including nicotine-containing e-cigarettes. In 2014, 44.4% of 12th-graders had ever used marijuana/hashish, and 35.1% had used in the past year; 41.4% reported being drunk in the past year. Users of one type of psychoactive substance are more likely to use others, like caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, THC or prescription

The purpose of the articles on this website is literally to answer the questions that teenagers will have on the topic of marijuana usage. The specific facts I want to use are the ways the drug goes into your body and the scientific methods of marijuana. I also want to include which sections of the brain marijuana effects and how those sections of your brain function. The article is more interesting because it starts off with a "letter to teens", which is basically the opening of the article. Most websites and articles of marijuana almost always start the same, but the letter to teens as you read it gets more and more engaging, so that's what absorbs teens to keep on

The article, “Marijuana and the Teen Brain”, from the Scientific American journal, Claudia Wallis, argues that marijuana negatively affects the teenage brain. Wallis begins her argument by stating her viewpoint on the drug and then proceeds to provide information to support her stance. Multiple studies by scientists/researchers are cited in this article including those based on x-rays of a marijuana user’s brain and others that tested marijuana users on their cognitive skills. Wallis additionally mentions a study on rats which tested the effects of THC. The author provides background information on marijuana to give the reader a better understanding of the concept. This source supports the argument that marijuana use has negative impacts on the human brain because the author also stands behind that argument. Wallis discusses these negative impacts and provides evidence to support her claim. This source cites various studies in which researchers tested the effects of marijuana on the brain which reinforces the argument that marijuana has abnormal effects on the human brain.

In my community there is a problem with marijuana use, especially among teenagers. A plan of action will include ways to reduce the occurrence of teen marijuana use. The first step is to educate the parents about the warning signs of marijuana use, which include:

A study by Cass et al. (2014) further expands on the mechanisms of how cannabis induce such deficits, especially in adolescents. The study focuses on how cannabis abuse can increase the risk of psychosis in the prefrontal cortex, and how stimulation of the CB1R impact the functional maturation of the prefrontal cortex in adolescent rats using the CB1R agonist (WIN). As a result, the study found that the repeated activation of CB1R during early and mid-adolescence can cause a prefrontal disinhibition that depends on the frequency of activation in adulthood; it particularly resembled the immature state of input processing in juvenile animals. This disinhibition can often lead to cognitive deficits like attention deficits, reduced executive functioning, and working memory.

In order to pay for drug use, teens engage in criminal behavior, motor vehicle theft, and breaking-and-entering offenses (University of Washington ADAI). Teen Marijuana users need money to pay for drug use, and in order to obtain money, teens engage in problematic behaviors. There are also legal aspects when selling, using, or possessing marijuana, involving fines, jail time, and possibly a criminal record (Teens Health 2). Teen marijuana users’ problematic behaviors involving the law can lead to consequences, sometimes with the potential to damage the teen’s future. Laws against growing, possessing, and selling marijuana exist in all states but Washington and Colorado (2). Over 7.2 million Americans have been arrested on marijuana charges since 1990, many of which were teenagers (NORML). Marijuana association damages the lives of many teens who get caught engaging in marijuana associated problematic behaviors. The problematic behaviors associated with teen marijuana use can potentially damage not only a teen’s future, but also society.

Evidence advises that youth who use marijuana heavily during adolescence may be particularly predisposed to health problems in later adulthood (e.g., respiratory illnesses, psychotic symptoms). Early adolescence to the mid-20s, were associated with adverse physical (e.g., asthma, high blood pressure) and mental (e.g., psychosis, anxiety disorders) health outcomes in the mid-30s. Marijuana and tobacco cigarettes share many of the same toxic chemicals (Tashkin, 2013), and the British Lung Foundation recently announced that the smoke produced by a marijuana cigarette might contain 50% more carcinogens than the smoke produced by a tobacco cigarette (British Lung Foundation, 2012) and report having chronic bronchitis, cough, phlegm production, wheezing,

It seems every decade marijuana studies show that it has no side effects on users, in turn it become more available like when some states in America had legalized it. Dr Kevin M. Gray believes that the only side effect of smoking weed is the physical addictions it causes, he believes that over 51% of all teens have used weed at least once and the biggest problem we are facing with this rapidly growing drug use is only addiction. Dr Marshall M. Gay believes that the health effects of weed isn’t that much as smoking cigarettes and doesn’t see it a threat to people’s health. “More than half (51%) of adolescents reported that marijuana is fairly or very easy to obtain.2 this ease of availability may have contributed to a recently reported "reverse gateway" from cigarettes use to marijuana”. The more ignored belief is that marijuana can lead to a variety of developmental, mental and physical side effects. The effects of smoking weed can extend to those of smoking cigarettes “studies show regular marijuana use can lead to many of the same

Cannabis or more commonly known as marijuana, because it is the most used drug among teens. And in 2013 an estimated 4.2 million people 12 years and older had a marijuana addiction or abuse problem. Also marijuana is addictive 1 in 6 people who start using marijuana as a teen and 25 to 50 percent of people who use marijuana ever day become addicted.

Marijuana is one of the most commonly used drugs in the Nation and the world. In an article by Gray (2007) he states that “42% of high school seniors have tried marijuana, 18% have used it in the past 30 days, and 5% use it daily. Among adolescents aged 12 to 17, 3.6% met criteria for cannabis use disorder (abuse or dependence) and 2% met criteria for cannabis dependence”. Gray (2007) also explains how easily adolescents say it is to obtain marijuana these days. The article also states that there is evidence to prove that marijuana use may lead to “hard” drug use, academic failure, and more. With those who use marijuana chronically it may lead to impairing of the immune

Due to the increased use of marijuana, researchers have discovered that this drug causes mutations in the users DNA which may be passed on to the children. Linking certain serious illnesses with marijuana use, researchers assert that even cancer comes from the cell mutations induced by the chemical properties of cannabis. The chemicals in the cannabis alters the DNA of the user, causing slow cell growth that may prevent a fetus' limbs and vital organs from developing properly or completely. Unfortunately, both parents do not necessarily have to use cannabis in order to cause illnesses to their children. Although a mother might not have used cannabis in her entire life, researches maintain that the cell mutations carried by the sperm of the