Pubdate: Wed, 07 Nov 2012
Source: Willits News (CA)
Copyright: 2012 Willits News
Contact:  http://www.willitsnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4085
Author: Linda Williams

TEEN MARIJUANA USE HAS LONG-TERM EFFECTS

A growing number of studies are concluding that teen and preteen use
of marijuana leads to lower intelligence and the increased potential
for psychotic behavior. Binge alcohol use also has been linked to
irreversible changes in brain development.

The findings are particularly troubling for the Willits area, where
school surveys show local students begin marijuana use and binge
drinking earlier than the California average.

Biologists have known for decades there was a link between early
marijuana use and psychotic behavior. There have also been
well-established links between early marijuana use and poor
educational achievement.

These early studies were unable to rule out the possibility the teens
and preteens had a predisposition toward these behaviors and were
possibly self-medicating to compensate until now.

Advances in brain scanning technology have allowed scientists to
directly observe the brain damage caused by the effects of alcohol and
marijuana consumption in teens. Scientists now have a better
understanding of the routine changes the adolescent brain undergoes as
it matures toward adulthood. They believe the developing brain is
particularly vulnerable to the impacts of alcohol and drugs.

Studies completed in 2010 showed young people who began drinking in
their early teens performed poorer on thinking and memory tests. Brain
scans indicated visible deterioration of areas in the brain, such as
the hippocampus and other key areas, according to a study by Professor
Susan Tapert of the University at San Diego.

Similar testing for marijuana use in 2008 also showed abnormal brain
changes.

Marijuana affects a different segment of the brain than alcohol,
leading to poorer performance on "thinking tasks, including slower
psychomotor speed and poorer complex attention, verbal memory and
planning ability," according to a paper presented by Professor Krista
Medina of the University of Cincinnati, in collaboration with
Professor Tapert.

In 2011 a series of independent studies by researchers in Texas, the
Netherlands, Australia and Britain established that early cannabis use
could accelerate the onset of schizophrenia and could double the risk
of developing psychotic symptoms. The studies were based in part on a
group of 1,923 German adolescents followed by medical researchers for
10 years. This study gathered wide-ranging data not just on cannabis
use as it followed the subjects' health for the term of the project.

In August, Duke University researchers published a paper reporting a
link between early marijuana use and lowered intelligence.

"Individuals who started using cannabis in adolescence and used it for
years afterward showed an average decline in IQ of 8 points when their
age 13 and age 38 IQ tests were compared. Quitting pot did not appear
to reverse the loss either," said Duke lead researcher Madeline Meier.

The research was based on following a group of 1,037 children born in
Dunedin, New Zealand, in the early 1970s until their 38th birthdays.

"Somebody who loses 8 IQ points as an adolescent may be disadvantaged
compared to their same-age peers for years to come," Meier said.
Earlier studies have linked early marijuana usage with poor school
performance and failure to attend higher education. This is the first
comprehensive long-term study following the development of specific
individuals. The earlier studies were unable to conclusively determine
whether marijuana was the root cause of the poor educational
achievement.

Willits students have admitted to using alcohol and tobacco at earlier
ages than the average California student in a series of California
Healthy Kids Surveys. In the 2008 survey, more than half Willits
seventh-graders admitted to using alcohol compared with only 23
percent in the California average. This same group had 27 percent of
Willits seventh-graders using marijuana compared with nine percent
statewide.

Of particular concern were the 26 percent of Willits pre-teens who
admitted to heavy alcohol use compared with six percent in the state;
and 13 percent of Willits pre-teens who admitted to heavy pot use
compared with the statewide average of three percent.

In Willits continuation schools, 36 percent of the students began
using pot at age 10 or earlier.

About 40 percent of Willits ninth- and 11th-graders and 81 percent of
continuation school students admitted to heavy alcohol and marijuana
use. This was between two and four times the state averages.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt