Casual marijuana use in teens isn’t harmless. Here’s why.

If you've ever taken a statistics class, the first thing they hammer into you is that correlation is not the same thing as causation.

The example my teacher used was this: It is a statistical fact that almost every person who has suffered a shark attack has eaten ice cream within a week of being attacked by a shark. Does that mean ice cream causes shark attacks? No. You can only get attacked by a shark while swimming. You swim when it is hot. You eat ice cream when it is hot.

Yes, people who use drugs and/or alcohol are more likely to be depressed than people who don't. Does that mean that drugs/alcohol cause depression? No. It just means depressed people try to self-medicate.

The government has done these same studies with music and video games over the years and every time they arrive at these same results, using this same tactic, knowing that most people won't think about it for longer than a second. Statistics are often used, without context or explanation, to push a specific narrative. And while their numbers may be factually correct, they are not relevant to the argument they are trying to make.

I love how we have to spend tons of money on national studies to state the obvious !!!

At least it's keeping someone employed .


And why were they not performing this study when i was a teen ... Me and my friends would have been all in!!

Also raises the risk of getting chronic high blood pressure as an adult.

What’s the point of this for those of us who are no longer in our teens?

It’s a crock anyway for many of us. I attended one of the top 10 public high schools in the US and started smoking weed at 15.

Not only did I get good grades, I scored well on the SAT and went on to get good grades and earn degrees from two Ivy League universities, including the one in Connecticut.

I smoked and got high frequently during those years, as did many of my friends, and we have had successful careers as partners in law firms, tenured university professors, and owners of profitable businesses. Marijuana was something we enjoyed in our youth and was a “gateway” to adulthood, not harder drugs.

You will never convince me that people who develop mental health issues wouldn’t have them regardless of whether or how much they may have smoked weed in their teens.

Since weed was illegal, there weren't many studies done with it. Now that it s available, studies on it are being conducted. Every time you study some aspect of its use, we'll find out more and more reasons why you shouldn't do it.

I think a lot of them aren't responsible enough to limit it, thats my only concern. My cousin was very big on it when he was just exiting highschool and almost failed. Especially when starting out some people can tend to do a little crazy. Starting out when you're young and in highschool might not be the best idea. He got very big into it and just kind of skipped school at times. His mother also did the same at his age. Any substance should wait until the person is mature enough to use it responsibly. I think certain people are better at it than others though. But I think some things can wait.

I was a user of alcohol in my case at a young age and did fine. However my friend started around the same time and became a heavy drinker and it idnd't do them any good. Different people. But it's why sometimes you wait until you're more mature.

It's also a gateway drug.

Nothing wrong with weed with the right education just like anything else in life

Did the study definitively say the cause was cannabis use? Because it could be that teens with depression, and suicidal thoughts find relief from cannabis as it quiets those thoughts down.

Agreed

No drug is harmless

My unscientific intuition is that it's probably pretty similar to the effects of recreational alcohol use at that age.

Also Fights and maybe killing involved if they don't pay back