I admit it, I smoked pot as a teen. Not a lot, and definitley not as much as some of my friends, but I tried it.
Does that make it right? Does that mean I will turn a blind-eye to my kids “experimenting”? According to a study just published parents definitely shouldn’t if we care about our how our kids will turn out as adults. The study reports that teens who smoke marijuana see their IQs drop as adults, and deficits persist even after quitting,
“The findings are consistent with speculation that cannabis use in adolescence, when the brain is undergoing critical development, may have neurotoxic effects,” study researcher Madeline Meier of Duke University said in a statement.
Here are the details of the study:
- The study followed 1,037 New Zealand children for 25 years.
- Subjects took IQ tests at age 13, before any of them had smoked marijuana, and again at age 38.
- Throughout the study, participants also answered several surveys about their drug use.
Roughly 5 percent of the participants started using marijuana as teenagers. Those who smoked marijuana at least four times a week and used marijuana throughout their life saw their IQ drop an average of 8 points, the equivalent of going from an A to a B student.
MSNBC reported, “Interestingly, people who picked up the habit as adults had no IQ drop, suggesting that marijuana may not be as harmful to the mature brain.”
So the bottomline, teens need to know that marijuana can have long-term affects since their brains are still developing. Are teens going to “experiment,” my guess is YES. Just make sure they understand the impacts and reprocussions of regular use.
