The teenage years are a time for continued growth and brain development, making it important to begin talking about the risks of cannabis use with your child. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), cannabis use can have permanent effects on the developing brain when use begins in adolescence. Hannah Statz DeVries, MD, a psychiatrist with Avera Behavioral Health explains the risks of marijuana use and how parents can take action.
What are the health risks of marijuana use?
Marijuana as a substance, it’s the second most common thing that we are treating from a use disorder perspective, second just to alcohol. There are health risks associated with marijuana; it’s especially detrimental to our mental health, contrary to popular belief, it does not help anxiety, or depression, or sleep, it actually worsens all of those things especially in the long term. From a physical health perspective, it’s an irritant, your lungs don’t like that, and so a chronic bronchitis or a cough or long-term damage can be a problem, as well as memory and cognitive impairments.
How can use affect brain development?
When we are looking at cannabis or marijuana, how it’s being used recreationally, it’s like opening the flood gates, your whole brain gets exposed to that THC and CBD. So IQ can drop eight points or so, and that can be permanent, especially when the use begins in teens, especially when the use is higher. We know that it also impairs learning and memory; our brain actually shows shrinkage in certain places where learning is impacted, too.
What are the misconceptions?
We know that the THC content especially is far higher than it was many decades ago, synthetic products and genetically altered products contain higher percentages and potency of these products. People might think it’s not addictive but it is addictive. Unfortunately it causes tolerance withdrawal and it’s hard to stop. Probably the last misconception is it helps my mental health, it helps me sleep, it helps me eat, it makes me feel better, it’s the only thing that works, popular culture or wherever they may have heard it says they may feel better using this but we know that it won’t and causes all these problems.
What parents can do:
Be someone they can come and talk to. Really be as open as you can, try to educate as much as you can, ask, talk, keep the conversation open, because it’s out there, it’s being used and if you’re not asking and you don’t know.
