Connor Lo

The Marijuana Epidemic

 

In the 1800s, the biggest drug was tobacco. Due to peer pressure and the belief that it was harmless, marijuana became the new norm. Marijuana is a greenish brown mix of dried leaves and stems from the plant cannabis. Marijuana contains a mind altering substance called THC which makes the drug addictive. Over time, marijuana has slowly seeped into the teenage world. According to the New Pittsburgh Courier, the number of eighth graders who use marijuana has doubled in the last decade from one in ten to one in five. It is vital that teens are aware of the mental health and legal risks of marijuana before they make the impulse decision to try it.

 

Marijuana affects your ability to memorize. A study done on rats showed that "rats exposed to THC [the substance in marijuana that changes your brain chemistry] before birth, soon after birth, or during adolescence show notable problems with specific learning and memory tasks later in life" (What are marijuana's long term effects on the brain?). If marijuana causes memory problems, it may be harder to get a job as an adult. Jobs such as a pharmacist, doctor, or computer scientist all require memorization. In addition to difficulty getting a job, difficulty memorizing short facts in general should be a concern.

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In addition to memory loss, marijuana has been shown to lower your IQ. In another study done by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, researchers administered IQ tests on over 1,000 people in New Zealand. One when they were 13 and one when they were 38. Those who smoked marijuana at least four times a week and continued to use pot experienced an average 8 percent IQ drop. By comparison, those who did not use marijuana showed no decline in IQ. This would only add to the struggle to get a job as an adult. If you have an IQ that is eight percent lower than some who does not smoke marijuana, you would be permanently at a disadvantage.

 

Lastly, there are the legal risks of smoking marijuana as a teen. Marijuana is considered federally illegal; however, some states have legalized marijuana use above age twenty-one (WA, OR, CA, NV, CO, AK, DC, MA, VT, ME).  Even if you are in a state that legalizes marijuana, you can still be arrested by smoking it on federally funded places such as colleges. In addition, most marijuana shops only take cash because banks do not want to be associated with marijuana stores. If the country still considers smoking marijuana a crime, why would it be something you want to do?

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At the end of the day, your body and your choices are your own. However, it is important that you give your brain time to mature and fully develop before exposing it to mind altering drugs. Smoking marijuana may feel good now, but it will have big consequences in the long term.