Marijuana is now legal for recreational use in our state. As our state legislators begin working on the details of legislation to create an entirely new regulatory agency that will monitor the sale and impact of marijuana in our communities, there should be healthy public debate. It should always be guided by facts, and the most up-to-date information we have at our disposal.
To that point, I’d like to address comments in a Dec. 15 Gazette article about a policy debate over what the legal age for marijuana use should be (“Rosenberg mulls raising legal age for marijuana”). Terry Franklin, a longtime advocate for legalizing marijuana, said he is concerned that politicians will rely on what he termed “pseudoscience” and “mumbo-jumbo” when making new marijuana policy decisions. “There’s nothing I’ve read that says cannabis affects the brain’s development,” Franklin was quoted as saying.
Let’s address the facts relevant to that comment. In the words of the American Academy of Pediatrics: “The adverse effects of marijuana have been well documented, and studies have demonstrated the potential negative consequences of short- and long-term recreational use of marijuana in adolescents.”
Among the consequences cited by the AAP and other reputable sources are impaired short-term memory, and decreased concentration and attention span, which are problems that particularly impact learning.
There are also longer-term consequences. Studies link marijuana use with increased rates of psychosis in people with a predisposition to schizophrenia. In addition, research over the past two decades demonstrates the frontal cortex area of the brain is not fully developed until the mid-20s.
Here is an excerpt from a March 2015 issue of the journal Pediatrics, published by the American Academy of Pediatrics: “The earlier the adolescent initiates substance use, the more likely a substance-use disorder, such as dependence or addiction, is to occur. Now, with newer techniques to study brain structure and function, data are emerging to suggest that the use of marijuana may alter the developing brain, paralleling what has been found in studies on adolescent neurocognitive functioning. For example, studies have shown that adolescents who report regular marijuana use perform more poorly on tests of working memory, visual scanning, cognitive flexibility, and learning. Furthermore, the number of episodes of lifetime marijuana use reported by subjects correlated with overall lower cognitive functioning.”
According to the weekly international medical journal The Lancet, which analyzed four large epidemiological trials, marijuana use during adolescence is associated with reductions in the odds of completing high school and attaining a degree, and increases in the use of other illicit drugs and suicide attempts.
Closer to home, local addiction specialist Dr. Ruth Potee, calls addiction “a pediatric disease,” citing research that shows the connection between substance use by someone with a developing brain and a lifetime of addiction. Studies show the rate of addiction to marijuana when used by adolescents is 17 percent (as compared to 9 percent on average). Dr. Potee believes that this rate is likely to rise with the higher levels of THC (the psychoactive chemical in marijuana) being used today.
Marijuana is often perceived as harmless — especially when compared to other drugs — by both young people and their parents. But as the data shows, and as anyone who has experienced dependence on marijuana, or who has seen a loved one lose their motivation or become chronically anxious, this psychoactive drug is not harmless for teens and should be regulated with this in mind.
According to 2014 health data by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, 55 percent of substance abuse treatment admissions for youths 12 to 18 years old were for marijuana dependence or addiction. As we consider how to protect the developing brains of our young people from the unintended consequences of legalization, let’s keep the facts straight.
David Sullivan is the Northwestern district attorney.