Heavy marijuana use in adolescence or early adulthood has been associated with a dismal set of life outcomes including poor school performance, higher dropout rates, increased welfare dependence, greater unemployment and lower life satisfaction.īut it's not clear that marijuana deserves the bulk of the blame. Those effects can last for days after the high wears off. In the short term, marijuana use has been shown to impair functions such as attention, memory, learning and decision-making. And evidence is mounting, says Weiss, that THC is not risk-free. What's clear, however, is that marijuana's signature high comes from a psychoactive component known as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Recently, the Senate recommended $800,000 for an Institute of Medicine study on medical marijuana, and has also encouraged the National Institutes of Health to support more research on cannabidiol. But there's a lot left to learn about this and other chemical compounds in marijuana. At least some of those benefits are thought to come from cannabidiol, a chemical component of the marijuana plant not thought to produce mind-altering effects. Marijuana shows considerable promise for treating medical conditions including pain, muscle spasms, seizure disorders and nausea from cancer chemotherapy. "But there's a growing literature, and it's all pointing in the same direction: Starting young and using frequently may disrupt brain development." Brain under construction "There are a lot of open questions" about the long-term effects of marijuana, says Susan Weiss, PhD, director of the division of extramural research at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). And adolescents' developing brains may be particularly vulnerable to lasting damage from the drug. Among the critics' concerns is the worry that, despite age limits, legalization might make marijuana more accessible to young people.
Acceptance of marijuana is growing (ahem) like a weed. Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Washington, D.C., now allow recreational use of the drug for people over 21. Twenty-three states have legalized Cannabis sativa for medical use since 1996. Marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug in the United States - but the term "illicit" may not apply much longer.
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