Question; in order to reduce opiod crisis. . . Lower legal age to buy pot?

@trollslayer ok im just throwing out ideas i havent checked in awhile is it still the problem it was in the 2010s?

@jehova Valid idea. But it seems to me a person's brain is still forming neuro pathways until early 20s. These pathways are what guide our adult thought processes. Teenagers are forming neuro pathways in response to life experiences - and as a teenager you have many new experiences and emotions. If you deal with those emotions and experiences while high, your brain will form pathways to deal with future experiences and emotions as if it were high. For these people, it then becomes difficult to deal with strong emotions as an without the help of drugs. When pot doesn't work - the move on to something stronger.

My wife is in recovery, and this is pretty much her story, and is nearly the same as all other recovering opioid addicts she knows. They started with alcohol or pot at 13-14 to deal with uncomfortable emotions. A few years later, they were needing ecstasy in order to feel anything, and then heroin/opioids in order to check out.

I can't cite them now, but I remember reading studies that show if a person does not experiment with drugs in their teenage years, they are much less likely to get hooked later in life. I didn't use drugs as a teen, and now as an adult when I have been given Oxy to deal with pain from an injury, I find that it is much more comfortable to deal with the pain with ibuprophen than to deal with the checked out feeling of Oxy. I think that is because my brain learned to deal with pain without drugs.