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Topics: Mental Health, Health, Drugs
William Morgan
Hundreds of millions of people around the world have tried smoking weed at some time or another, with the widely used drug being the third most popular psychoactive drug after alcohol and tobacco.
Even William Shakespeare himself is believed to have tangled with the munchies-inducing herb, with a number of pipes excavated at his home revealing cannabis residue. But despite many advocates claiming the drug's health benefits, it can have some serious downsides.
Aside from eating a whole bag of chips in one sitting, or getting an incredibly dry mouth, cannabis usage can lead to lung cancer among people who smoke it as well as lower fertility levels.
While these harmful health consequences can take years to develop, one demographic of stoners is more at risk than any other of experiencing a life-changing side effect from ripping bongs, taking edibles, or toking on a spliff.
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That is, people whose brains are not fully developed. This was explained by health educators 'Talking With Docs', who also detailed the ideal age you should be before smoking weed in a video.
"There are three specific areas that are vulnerable to the effects of cannabis," Dr Paul Zalzal and Dr Brad Weening said in a discussion on its neurological impacts, laying out the precise areas of your brain that can be harmed if you smoke weed at too young of an age.
The doctor said: "That would be your prefrontal cortex, which is some of your decision making areas. Your hippocampus, where memories are made and consolidated, and your amygdala where your emotions are regulated."
While scientific understanding of when a brain is fully mature has developed over the years, the doctors explained that 'good studies' have established that 'these areas are very vulnerable and are immature until age 25.'
This is likely referring to several large studies and surveys published in the last two years that detailed the exact impact that cannabis use in younger people is having on their brains, and the rest of their lives.
A Columbia survey of 160,000 teens from eighth to twelfth grade carried out between 2018 and 2022 found that one in four students had used cannabis, but that those who reported using the drug once or twice every month had double the risk of developing depression and anxiety.
Heavy cannabis usage has also long been associated with an increased risk of developing schizophrenia, but surveys of research into this topic suggests it may hasten the onset of the disorder and worsen its symptoms, rather than trigger the condition entirely.
Importantly, the exception to this is in young people who use cannabis, with research published in Psychological Medicine showing that young men in particular are at risk, with male stoners four times more likely to develop schizophrenia than women.
This is not to single out weed either, a University of Colorado study found that heavy alcohol usage had a more profound effect on the developing brains of teenagers than cannabis, reducing their amount of gray and white matter and harming their ability to learn or absorb information.
The same study found that teenage cannabis use was causing 'disrupted functional development, and decreased executive functioning and IQ,' among heavy users of the drug.
Unlike cannabis, which has an annual overdose rate of zero and an almost-zero direct death rate in the general population, heavy alcohol usage directly claims over 50,000 American lives each year.
And the group that is most likely to die as a direct consequence of their alcohol usage is young people, with the fatality rate for those aged 15 to 24 roughly 66 percent higher than for people who are middle age.
But with a medical approach to harm reduction, the YouTube doctors' advice, and warning, is that anyone who is 'determined' to use this psychoactive substance should 'wait until you're 25 because the effects will be less.'