Staff Writer
Marijuana
has been in the hot spot for years. As some states decide whether or not to legalize
the drug, the impacts will be felt throughout the U.S. While Marijuana can be
used to treat hundreds of medical conditions, the raw plant material contains hundreds of unknown components
and has not yet been approved by the FDA in terms of its safety and efficacy.
Pot
is especially popular among high school students in the U.S. A University of
Michigan study found that nearly 40% of 12th graders used marijuana
in 2013. Among those age 18 or
older who relayed lifetime marijuana use, about 53% reported that they first
used it between ages 12 and 17. Smoking the hallucinogenic drug in North
Carolina is illegal for any age. However, 22 states allow people 21 and older
with a referral from a doctor to purchase marijuana for medical use. Only Colorado
and Washington have approved it for recreational use.
Are there serious repercussions for those who
choose to use weed during critical stages of mental and physical development? In
short, yes. Smoking pot during important developmental years like high school,
even recreationally, affects the size and structure of certain brain regions.
According to a study found in the Journal
of Neuroscience, for each additional joint a person smokes per
week, the greater the chances of structural changes to areas involved in
motivation, reward, and emotion. The condition of the brain’s structure depends
on how many joints are smoked. Anne Blood, the director of the Mood and Motor
Control Lab at Massachusetts General Hospital, says the parts of the brain that
are affected “are core, fundamental structures… They form the basis for how you
assess positive and negative features about things in the environment and make
decisions about them.”
Hans Breiter, psychiatry and behavioral sciences
professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and his team conducted a study involving people
who smoked every day. In the study, those who had smoked every day, even after
stopping for a few years had links to brain abnormalities and poorer working
memory. “I’ve developed a severe worry
about whether we should be allowing anybody under age 30 to use pot unless they
have a terminal illness and need it for pain,” Breiter said.
