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Conversations About Smoking
Help Youths Resist
According to NPR, health care providers' chats with children and teens about the dangers of smoking are influencing their decision not to start.
Aging Workforce Presents
Highway Safety Challenges
USA Today reports on increasing road risks due to the growing number of older motorists who drive for a living and have age-related impairment in some driving skills.
CDC Reports Schools
Getting Healthier
According to The Washington Post, school districts across the country are showing various improvements in nutrition, exercise, and tobacco policies.
Cartoon Drawing Therapeutic
for Boy With Mental Health Conditions
CNN reports on a boy with several mental health challenges who's using cartooning as a tool for self-expression. |
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September is National Recovery Month, and this year it occurs on the heels of significant legislative changes regarding the use of medical marijuana and, in some regions, recreational use. Debates will continue on policy changes for these types of marijuana use, but this month’s E-News Exclusive reports on use by another, potentially higher-risk group—adolescents—and its perception by teens as a “safe” drug.
Research shows that cannabis interacts with the brain in areas that involve learning and management of rewards, motivated behavior, decision making, habit formation, and motor function. Brain structure changes rapidly during adolescence, and scientists believe that cannabis use at this time influences the way these parts of the user’s personality develop.
Only a minority of teenage users will develop an abusive or dependent relationship with marijuana, and it likely will be those who are genetically or psychologically vulnerable. Identifying these adolescents may be the key to prevention and early intervention of addiction and mental health conditions related to cannabis use.
Researcher Didier Jutras-Aswad, MD, says the objective “is not to fuel the debate about whether cannabis is good or bad but instead to identify those individuals who might most suffer from its deleterious effects and provide adequate measures to prevent this risk.”
Recovery Month promotes the benefits of substance abuse treatment and recovery—but it also emphasizes prevention. This month’s exclusive suggests that treatment professionals, policymakers, and the public take a closer look at the data on marijuana’s effects on the developing adolescent brain and how it can inform public policy.
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— Marianne Mallon, editor |
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Cannabis Affects Addiction Processes in the Adolescent Brain
The nature of the teenage brain makes cannabis users among this population particularly at risk of developing addictive behaviors and experiencing other long-term negative effects, according to researchers at the University of Montreal and New York’s Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
“Of the illicit drugs, cannabis is most used by teenagers since it is perceived by many to be of little harm. This perception has led to a growing number of states approving its legalization and increased accessibility. Most of the debates regarding cannabis were conducted and ensuing policies formulated without consideration of its impact on one of the most vulnerable populations, namely teens, or without consideration of scientific data,” wrote Didier Jutras-Aswad, MD, of the University of Montreal and Yasmin Hurd, MD, PhD, of Mount Sinai. “While it is clear that more systematic scientific studies are needed to understand the long-term impact of adolescent cannabis exposure on brain and behavior, the current evidence suggests that it has a far-reaching influence on adult addictive behaviors particularly for certain subsets of vulnerable individuals.”
The researchers reviewed more than 120 studies that examined different aspects of the relationship between cannabis and the adolescent brain, including the biology of the brain, chemical reaction that occurs in the brain when the drug is used, and influence of genetics and environmental factors, in addition to studies into the “gateway drug” phenomenon.
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