Everyday pot habit reduced odds of higher education, increased suicide risk, study contends
WebMD News from HealthDay
By Alan Mozes
HealthDay Reporter
TUESDAY, Sept. 9, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Teens who use marijuana on a daily basis before they reach the age of 17 are more likely to have certain long-term problems than their non-using peers, new research from Australia suggests.
Compared to non-using teens, the study reports that adolescents who use pot, also known as cannabis, on a daily basis before age 17 are:
- 60 percent less likely to get a high school diploma or university degree;
- seven times more likely to attempt suicide during young adulthood;
- at an eight times greater risk for using a range of other illegal drugs in their 20s;
- and 18 times more likely to develop a long-term dependence on marijuana that goes beyond the age of 17.
"What we found is that although the effects were greatest for the daily users, there were also notable effects at the lower frequencies of cannabis use as well," said study lead author Edmund Silins. He is a research fellow with the faculty of medicine at the University of New South Wales' National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre in Sydney.
"In fact," he added, "the less-than-monthly use before the age of 17 was also associated with a degree of risk of adverse outcomes, although it was less, of course, than it was for daily users."
Silins and co-author Richard Mattick discussed their team's findings on Tuesday at a teleconference from Sydney. Their study is published in the September issue of The Lancet Psychiatry.
The authors pointed out that marijuana is currently the most commonly used illegal drug worldwide, with daily (or almost daily) use now seen among approximately 7 percent of high school seniors in the United States.
To explore the potential long-term consequences of marijuana use during adolescence, the study team analyzed the collective findings of three long-term investigations involving almost 3,800 men and women in Australia and New Zealand.
The specific focus was on the frequency of pot use during mid-adolescence until age 17, with exposure ranked on a scale ranging from never to daily use.
In addition, long-term developmental performance was tracked on seven different measures, including: graduating from high school; obtaining a university degree by the age of 25; development of marijuana dependence; depression; frequency of suicide attempts; use of other illegal drugs (including cocaine, heroin, amphetamines, hallucinogens, and/or prescription medications); and whether or not participants were financially dependent on government assistance between the ages of 27 and 30.
The result: even after accounting for a wide range of factors that could affect developmental performance (including age, gender, ethnicity, financial means and mental illness), the research team concluded that there was a "clear and consistent" link between the daily use of marijuana during adolescence and considerably worse long-term prospects.
source : Teens' Daily Marijuana Use Linked to Poor Outcomes
