Preteen Marijuana Use Could Lead to Psychological Disorders

One of the latest studies lead by researcher Youssef Mahfoud, MD, from the Department of Psychiatry at Case Western Reserve and University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio reveals that children who start smoking marijuana before the age of 13 have a greater risk for comorbid substance abuse and psychosocial and legal problems. Medscape.com writes, "In the study of 136 substance-dependent girls and boys, those who started using marijuana as a preteen were more likely to have a history of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), suicide attempts, and traffic violations and to be dependent on other drugs." Ethnicity, race, parental education, parental substance abuse history, and characteristics of preteen marijuana users on admission to substance abuse programs were also taken into consideration as factors that may predict teen marijuana use. It was discovered that preteen marijuana abusers were more likely to be Hispanic. They also tended to have parents with less education. Sixty percent of these instances had parents with only a junior high education. According to Medscape.com, "The researchers plan to follow the sample in the study to see whether they find an improvement in outcomes for preteen marijuana users after substance abuse treatment and to gauge whether preteen marijuana use is associated with less successful response to substance abuse treatment therapies." If you would like more information on how you can talk to your children about drugs, check out the Marshall County Family Resource Network's Parent Toolkit.