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Health & Fitness

Marijuana use by teens: a public health issue

Marijuana use has been increasing over the past decade. Reversing this trend is important for the sake of our children's developing minds and futures.

By Dr. William Hauda

Marijuana use has been increasing over the past decade.  Reversing this trend will be challenging, but it may be where some of our most important efforts should be directed. The continued societal efforts to legalize marijuana by state legislation can only increase the recreational and abusive use by our teens. 

As a physician, I believe that we must address substance abuse – including marijuana -- as a public health issue. It is not enough to recognize and treat it; we need to stop it from happening.

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The movement to legalize and “medicalize” marijuana creates challenges to any simple assumption that marijuana is bad. Our young people hear the mixed messages. One group is saying that marijuana is “no big deal” or “no worse than alcohol” while other groups are saying it is a “gateway drug” to other illicit drugs. 

For the past several years, the proportion of teens who view marijuana use as harmful has been declining. It is no surprise that teen use of marijuana has been steadily rising over these same years, as shown in the National Institute on Drug Abuse's Monitoring the Future survey. Fairfax County’s Youth Survey shows a similar pattern with nearly 40% of 12th graders reporting use of marijuana at some point in their life, and 20% saying they had used marijuana in the past month. Both of these proportions had declined from 2001 to 2005 but have since risen back to their 2001 levels.

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The medical community is conflicted as well. As a physician I see the benefit of increased appetite and pain modulation, but also recognize the problem of cancer, from using marijuana in a smoked form, and the direct negative brain effects on memory and possibly brain development. In addition, there is the very real negative impact on the ability to safely drive a car.

Unfortunately, the message to our youth can appear confused, incomplete and old-fashioned if we do not address current perceptions, attitudes, and scientific understanding. 

Reviewing the experience in Colorado with medical use of marijuana, some statistics are revealing of the patients who use medical marijuana:

  • 71% are male
  • The median age is 32
  • 88% report severe pain
  • 23% report muscle spasms
  • 22% report nausea
  • 4% have cancer
  • 2% have HIV or AIDS

The number of licensed marijuana dispensaries out-numbers Starbuck’s coffee shops in Denver by almost 4 to 1. These numbers suggest that users of medical marijuana in Colorado are probably not the sick patients that most physicians or legislators were envisioning when the medical marijuana law was created.

Marijuana may have a place as a medical therapy for patients, but “medicalization” of marijuana and the adoption of legal recreational use by adults in specific states will surely continue to increase the use and abuse by adolescents unless we work hard on prevention. Our children’s developing minds and futures depend upon on action now to reverse this troubling trend.

Dr. William Hauda of Inova Fairfax Hospital is a board member of the Unified Prevention Coalition of Fairfax County.

The Unified Prevention Coalition of Fairfax County is a nonprofit organization with more than 50 community partners working together to keep youth and young adults safe and drug-free. Visit www.unifiedpreventioncoalition.org.  

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