The Evidence is Mounting

Judson Bemis | April 15, 2020

Two studies released in March point to bad news for the use of marijuana, especially for teens.  We hear from many parents that their teen is telling them that marijuana is harmless.  This maybe true for the pot of old but it is increasingly being discovered that the new potency is anything but harmless.  We also here about great kids whose grades have plummeted and who only want to “get high”.  In a book published this year by ScienceDirect titled Risk Factors for Psychosis Paradigms, Mechanisms, and Prevention, authors Marco Colizzi and Sagnik Bhattacharyya reviewed 13 studies to see if marijuana use causes psychosis.  Their findings are the first to suggest this causality

… there is robust evidence for an association between cannabis use and psychosis. This association appears to be of a modest strength, though the risk of psychosis may increase significantly as a function of cannabis frequency and potency as well as in the context of specific genetic or neurophysiological vulnerability. From prospective to experimental studies, the available literature points in the direction of a causal relationship. (our italics)

But another study released on March titled Adolescent cannabis use, cognition, brain health and educational outcomes: A review of the evidence by Valentina Lorenzette, Eva Hoch and Wayne Hall was aimed more directly at the effects of marijuana use by adolescents.  They reviewed all studies in the last 10 years.  They note that in Europe and the US that the proportion of teens who believe that Marijuana poses a risk of harm has decreased over the past decade and that cannabis use disorder is now the most common drug disorders among people treated in specialty treatment globally.  Their findings are:

The cognitive effects of cannabis require further research, but adolescents should nonetheless be informed that there may be adverse cognitive, neural and educational effects from daily cannabis use. Adolescents and young adults who use cannabis should also be informed about cognitive recovery after cessation of daily use. This could encourage cessation in regular users who are concerned about the effects of cannabis on their cognitive performance. This type of advice could be given as part of information about other risks of daily cannabis use of potent cannabis products, namely cannabis dependence and the possible precipitation and aggravation of psychoses, anxiety and depression (Hall, 2015).

At Gobi we try to provide a process and support for teens and their parents to learn to communicate about substance use.  Parents have an incredible influence over their teen’s decisions.  We hope that the Gobi program will give teens a chance to think about their future and what roll substances play in that picture.