Is Marijuana Bad For You?

Marijuana use needs to be studied much more extensively before we can fully understand its effects, especially in the long term. Some of the negative effects associated with marijuana include cancer, impaired brain development, addiction, and psychosis. Studies also suggest that there are many health benefits from marijuana use.

Further investigation is required before knowing if these effects are truly caused by marijuana, or caused by other factors associated with marijuana users. In most cases, there is conflicting evidence supporting both causation and correlation theories. Here are some of the suspected negative effects of marijuana:

Impaired brain development: several studies have found that marijuana negatively impacts brain development, especially amongst teenagers. Using marijuana once a week or more changes the structure of the brain areas responsible for memory and problem solving. The average grades of teenagers who smoke weed are a full grade point lower than the grades of teens who don’t indulge. These impediments remain in adulthood, even if the person quits using marijuana. Further study is needed to prove that the altered brain development is in fact caused by marijuana. This study found that the supposed effects of cannabis use on IQ could also be explained by socioeconomic status.

Addiction: marijuana is commonly mistaken as a non-addictive drug. In fact, the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse claims that up to thirty per cent of marijuana users may develop some form of marijuana use disorder, and nine per cent develop an addiction to the drug. Marijuana advocates point out that this is considerably less of a risk than other legal drugs such as alcohol and tobacco, which have addiction rates of fifteen per cent and thirty-two per cent, respectively.

Psychosis: There is considerable evidence linking marijuana use to the onset or worsening of psychosis/psychotic disorders including schizophrenia. Young people and people with a family history of such disorders are especially at risk.

Paranoia: some users experience this unwanted side effect shortly after using weed. Selecting a strain of cannabis with a lower dose of THC can help mitigate this effect.

Vomiting: large doses of weed can cause vomiting. Conversely, marijuana has shown promise as a treatment option for chemotherapy patients experiencing nausea and vomiting.

Cancer: marijuana smoke has more carcinogens than tobacco smoke. Marijuana smoke must also be inhaled more deeply and held longer in the lungs than tobacco smoke to achieve the desired effects. Many scientists worry that this could lead to higher cancer rates among marijuana users. However, current studies have failed to find a relationship between marijuana use and increased cancer risk. This may be due in part to the lack of older subjects who smoke marijuana but not tobacco, so a link between marijuana and cancer cannot be ruled out.

Lung damage: smoking of any kind harms the lungs, and marijuana is no exception. Fortunately, there are many other ways to ingest weed that do not harm the lungs, such as eating weed edibles or applying a topical cream infused with THC.