Teenagers warned on impact of cannabis

TEENAGERS USING cannabis are causing damage to their developing brains, new research suggests.

A study involving 3,800 adolescents found a link between use of the drug and delayed cognitive development, with the effects “more pronounced” and “lasting” than alcohol.

The findings suggest teenagers should delay cannabis use for as long as possible, the researchers said.

The study, which has been published in the American Journal of Psychiatry today, examined the relationship between alcohol, cannabis use and cognitive development among Canadian adolescents.

Some were abstainers, while others were occasional or high consumers.

The authors said young people should delay cannabis use as long as possible. “The concurrent and lasting effects of adolescent cannabis use can be observed on important cognitive functions and appear to be more pronounced than those observed for alcohol,” the authors wrote.

They were “even more pronounced when consumption begins earlier in adolescence”, coauthor Jean-Francois G. Morin, from the Universite de Montreal, said.

Senior author Dr Patricia Conrod, from the university’s department of psychiatry, said: “The message to young people who wish to succeed in school and their adult life is that they should do what they can to delay their cannabis use as much as possible. A regular cannabis user in the 10th grade was three years behind their peers in their development of inhibitory control and equivalent to their non-cannabis using peers in the seventh grade.”

Researchers from CHU SainteJustine and Universite de Montreal in Canada carried out the research over a period of four years.