Pubdate: Mon, 06 Nov 2017
Source: Hartford Courant (CT)
Copyright: 2017 The Hartford Courant
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/IpIfHam4
Website: http://www.courant.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/183
Author: Gregory B. Hladky

UCONN STUDY: TEENAGE POT AND ALCOHOL USE CAN REDUCE SUCCESS LATER IN LIFE

Teens who use a lot of marijuana and alcohol are less likely to have a
full time job when they grow up, or to get a college education or get
married, according to a new study by University of Connecticut
researchers.

The study of 1,165 young adults from across the U.S. also found that
dependence on pot and booze may also have a "more severe effect on
young men" than on young women.

"This study found that chronic marijuana use in adolescence was
negatively associated with achieving important developmental
milestones in young adulthood." - Elizabeth Harari, University of
Connecticut researcher.

Young women who were dependent on marijuana and alcohol were also less
likely to go to college and had a lower standard of living than
non-dependent women, but were equally likely to be employed full-time
and to get married as non-dependent women.

"This study found that chronic marijuana use in adolescence was
negatively associated with achieving important developmental
milestones in young adulthood," Elizabeth Harari, a UConn Health
psychiatry resident and author of the study, told UConn Today.

Harari presented the results of the research at the American Public
Health Association's 2017 Annual Meeting and Expo in Atlanta.

The research from tracked information collected by the Collaborative
Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism on young people beginning at age
12. These individuals were then re-assessed at two-year intervals
until they were between 25 and 34 years old, checking on their
educational levels, marital status, full-time employment and social
and economic potential.

Earlier academic research has demonstrated that chronic use of alcohol
or marijuana in adolescence can affect the user's development. The new
UConn study differed in that it attempted to determine what heavy use
of pot and booze would mean for a person in adulthood.

"Awareness of marijuana's potentially deleterious effects will be
important moving forward, given the current move in the U.S. toward
marijuana legalization for medicinal and possibly recreational use,"
Harari said.

Connecticut has already decriminalized possession of small amounts of
marijuana and already has a legal medical marijuana program for
thousands of patients. Massachusetts is moving forward with legalizing
recreational pot, although proposals to do the same in Connecticut
stalled in this year's legislative session.
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MAP posted-by: Matt