Cannabis use or smoking pot at an early age may lead to drug abuse problems in later life. Therefore, it is essential to prevent or reduce cannabis use as early as possible.
Cannabis
Cannabis has a long history of medicinal, recreational, and industrial use and comes from a bushy plant with thick sticky flowers called Cannabis Sativa
Cannabis has a long history of medicinal, recreational, and industrial use and comes from a bushy plant with thick sticky flowers called Cannabis Sativa
‘Cannabis use or smoking pot at an early age between ages 13 and 15 may increase drug abuse problems in later life. Therefore, it is important to implement programs by the end of elementary school to prevent early onset of cannabis use.’
All the more reason, they say, to educate kids early, in primary school, about the risks of starting pot smoking, especially now that the potency is much greater than it was in decades past and that public acceptance is being spurred by legalization in jurisdictions such as Canada. "The odds of developing any drug abuse symptoms by age 28 were reduced by 31 percent for each year of delayed onset of cannabis use in adolescence," the researchers at UdeM's Department of Psychology, School of Psychoeducation and the CHU Saint-Justine Hospital Research Centre found.
The findings of study was published in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry.
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According to a 2011 study by University of Waterloo researchers in the journal Addictive Behaviors, 10 percent of Canadian adolescents consumed cannabis in Grade 8. By Grade 12, that percentage nearly tripled to 29 percent. Early-onset cannabis use has been linked to further drug abuse problems later in life.
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The researchers looked at data for 1,030 boys in the Montreal Longitudinal and Experimental Study of white francophones from some of the city's impoverished neighborhoods begun in the early 1980s. Every year between ages 13 and 17, the boys were asked if they had consumed cannabis at all in the previous year.
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Double the chance if frequent use
The results confirmed the researchers' suspicions: the younger they started, the more likely the boys had a drug problem later as young men. This is partly explained by the frequency with which they consumed cannabis and other drugs, but those who started before age 15 were at higher risk regardless of how often they consumed.
"The odds of developing any drug abuse symptoms by age 28 were non-significant if cannabis use had its onset at ages 15 to 17, but were significant and almost doubled each year if onset was before age 15," the study says. Even if those who start smoking cannabis at 17 years were at lower risk, frequent users (20 or more times a year) at age 17 had almost double the chance of abuse by age 28 than occasional users.
And that may be underestimating the problem, the researchers say.
"Notably, considering that the potency of cannabis products increased over the last two decades and that [inthis study] adolescent cannabis use was assessed from 1991 to 1995, it is possible that the higher content of Δ-9-tetrahydrocannabinol in the cannabis available today would be associated with higher rates of drug abuse symptoms."
Gangs, thievery, drinking
The researchers also found that the earlier that boys were involved in gangs, drank alcohol, got into fights, stole or vandalized property, the earlier they used cannabis and the higher their odds of having drug abuse issues by 28. Those who started drinking at 17 also were at higher risk of having an alcohol problem at 28.
The finding that starting pot smoking between ages 13 and 15 increases the odds of developing a drug problem, later on, makes it all the more important to prevent or reducing cannabis use as early as possible, the researchers say.
"It may be important to implement these programs by the end of elementary school to prevent early onset of cannabis use," said Rioux. "Since peer influence and delinquency were identified as early risk factors for earlier cannabis onset and adult drug abuse, targeting these risk factors in prevention programs may be important, especially since prevention strategies working on the motivators of substance use have been shown to be effective."
Source-Eurekalert
