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Teen Marijuana Vaping Soars, Displacing Other Habits

nytimes.com

11–20 of 180 posts

Re: Teen Marijuana Vaping Soars, Displacing Other Habits

#11

It's funny because for years, as the opening of the article suggests, usual teenage vices (booze, drugs, and sex) have been dropping contrary to 80s teen movie stereotypes. FWIW, apart from the potential concerns with inhaling vaporized anything--something people skeptical of vaping point to although the science hasn't really established if it is harmful or not yet, weed is certainly the weakest of drugs (including a…

> weed is certainly the weakest of drugs (including alcohol) wrt harm for the body. is the brain a part of the body? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3930618/ https://www.apa.org/monitor/2015/11/marijuana-brain

Alcohol and cannabis are both detrimental to brain development.

Re: Teen Marijuana Vaping Soars, Displacing Other Habits

#12

The thing that sucks here is the health issues have nothing inherently to do with THC and everything to do with vaping a black market product that has shitty ingredients in it. I live in CA where it is becoming more and more regulated. I have a 'church' down the street where I can buy stuff at a steeeep discount (no tax, lower prices)... but I go to the regulated places the next town over (higher taxes, higher prices…

I am not a doctor but from what I have been reading, consuming THC on a regular basis before 21 (the commonly accepted age for the latest stage of brain development) is definitely a bad idea, as it will prevent the endocannabinoid system to develop correctly. I would not dismiss teen smoking/vaping as a public health concern, it's not just about counterfeiting, I think we need better education about the risks and benefits.

Re: Teen Marijuana Vaping Soars, Displacing Other Habits

#13

The thing that sucks here is the health issues have nothing inherently to do with THC and everything to do with vaping a black market product that has shitty ingredients in it. I live in CA where it is becoming more and more regulated. I have a 'church' down the street where I can buy stuff at a steeeep discount (no tax, lower prices)... but I go to the regulated places the next town over (higher taxes, higher prices…

I am not a doctor but from what I have been reading, consuming THC on a regular basis before 21 (the commonly accepted age for the latest stage of brain development) is definitely a bad idea, as it will prevent the endocannabinoid system to develop correctly. I would not dismiss teen smoking/vaping as a public health concern, it's not just about counterfeiting, I think we need better education about the risks and ben…

What have you been reading? Can you share some of that data with us so we can come to a common understanding? I was under the impression that this was not a fact, just a supposition; I would love to be enlightened!

Re: Teen Marijuana Vaping Soars, Displacing Other Habits

#14

The thing that sucks here is the health issues have nothing inherently to do with THC and everything to do with vaping a black market product that has shitty ingredients in it. I live in CA where it is becoming more and more regulated. I have a 'church' down the street where I can buy stuff at a steeeep discount (no tax, lower prices)... but I go to the regulated places the next town over (higher taxes, higher prices…

I am not a doctor but from what I have been reading, consuming THC on a regular basis before 21 (the commonly accepted age for the latest stage of brain development) is definitely a bad idea, as it will prevent the endocannabinoid system to develop correctly. I would not dismiss teen smoking/vaping as a public health concern, it's not just about counterfeiting, I think we need better education about the risks and ben…

What are the side effects of this system developing incorrectly?

Re: Teen Marijuana Vaping Soars, Displacing Other Habits

#15

It's funny because for years, as the opening of the article suggests, usual teenage vices (booze, drugs, and sex) have been dropping contrary to 80s teen movie stereotypes. FWIW, apart from the potential concerns with inhaling vaporized anything--something people skeptical of vaping point to although the science hasn't really established if it is harmful or not yet, weed is certainly the weakest of drugs (including a…

> weed is certainly the weakest of drugs (including alcohol) wrt harm for the body. is the brain a part of the body? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3930618/ https://www.apa.org/monitor/2015/11/marijuana-brain

I know people who are extremely dependent on weed, who will have anxiety attacks without it. It's less dangerous than most drugs, but there are people who are important to me that I wish could function without it. I'm talking grown adults, with families, who do nothing but play video games.

Their problems would exist without the weed, but it seems to play a part in their stagnation. I guess I just don't know that many people who will just occasionally smoke it, it seems to turn into a lifestyle as much as any other drug.

Re: Teen Marijuana Vaping Soars, Displacing Other Habits

#16
Unlike other drugs (smoking, drinking) adults (at least the noisy ones online) very much want marijuana.

And because of that they are very poorly motivated to stop its use among teens.

So this isn't going to get better, it'll get much worse.

Adults also believe marijuana use is perfectly fine, and risk free, which may or may not be true for adults, but is not true for teens.

But because they believe it's risk free they aren't exactly telling teens not to use it.

And keep in mind: those adults who really want to use marijuana are the "nosiest" online, which is where teens get all their info.

Re: Teen Marijuana Vaping Soars, Displacing Other Habits

#17

The thing that sucks here is the health issues have nothing inherently to do with THC and everything to do with vaping a black market product that has shitty ingredients in it. I live in CA where it is becoming more and more regulated. I have a 'church' down the street where I can buy stuff at a steeeep discount (no tax, lower prices)... but I go to the regulated places the next town over (higher taxes, higher prices…

I am not a doctor but from what I have been reading, consuming THC on a regular basis before 21 (the commonly accepted age for the latest stage of brain development) is definitely a bad idea, as it will prevent the endocannabinoid system to develop correctly. I would not dismiss teen smoking/vaping as a public health concern, it's not just about counterfeiting, I think we need better education about the risks and ben…

This is just my experience, but my endocannabinoid system is just flourishing. I, unfortunately, started smoking cannabis at age 16 and was using daily by age 18. I quit for 5 or so years in my mid-twenties and picked it up again in my early 30s.

Re: Teen Marijuana Vaping Soars, Displacing Other Habits

#18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> weed is certainly the weakest of drugs (including alcohol) wrt harm for the body. is the brain a part of the body? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3930618/ https://www.apa.org/monitor/2015/11/marijuana-brain

Your first source states in the abstract that causality between marijuana use and altered brain function was not determined edit: if anything I think more research is needed to inform effective regulation. I'm astonished how little there is on this drug

Getting permission to do research on a schedule 1 drug is pretty tricky, from what I understand? Since marijuana is schedule 1 it's termed as having a) no medical benefit and b) a high potential for abuse, which puts you in something of a catch-22 situation: you can't justify the research on medical grounds because the drug has no medical benefit (or it wouldn't be sched 1), and you can't justify research for exploratory purposes because of the potential for abuse (or else it wouldn't be sched 1), and then it becomes hard to find research that says "Actually, weed has medical uses and isn't nearly as abusable as heroin" because no research can be conducted.

Edit: To clarify, that's not to say that marijuana _should_ be schedule 1, only that it _is_ schedule 1 and moving something out of sched 1 is challenging because the research position is tricky.

Re: Teen Marijuana Vaping Soars, Displacing Other Habits

#19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not a doctor but from what I have been reading, consuming THC on a regular basis before 21 (the commonly accepted age for the latest stage of brain development) is definitely a bad idea, as it will prevent the endocannabinoid system to develop correctly. I would not dismiss teen smoking/vaping as a public health concern, it's not just about counterfeiting, I think we need better education about the risks and ben…

What have you been reading? Can you share some of that data with us so we can come to a common understanding? I was under the impression that this was not a fact, just a supposition; I would love to be enlightened!

> The team found that persistent marijuana use was linked to a decline in IQ, even after the researchers controlled for educational differences. The most persistent users — those who reported using the drug in three or more waves of the study — experienced a drop in neuropsychological functioning equivalent to about six IQ points (PNAS, 2012). "That's in the same realm as what you'd see with lead exposure," says Weiss. "It's not a trifle."

> a number of studies have found evidence of brain changes in teens and young adults who smoke marijuana. In 2013, Rocío Martín-Santos, MD, PhD, at the University of Barcelona, and colleagues reviewed 43 studies of chronic cannabis use and the brain. They found consistent evidence of both structural brain abnormalities and altered neural activity in marijuana users.

https://www.apa.org/monitor/2015/11/marijuana-brain

Re: Teen Marijuana Vaping Soars, Displacing Other Habits

#20

The article starts with something that is, by most accounts, harm reduction among teenagers: “Teenagers are drinking less alcohol, smoking fewer cigarettes and trying fewer hard drugs, new federal survey data shows. But these public health gains have been offset by a sharp increase in vaping of marijuana and nicotine..." The statistics, unused in this article, are quite clear: alcohol, tobacco and hard drugs more har…

it is clear that the NYT wants society to go back to the cocked up 80s
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