Marijuana use during adolescence damages the brain. That’s a definite. But that’s just the beginning.
New research suggests that marijuana use during adolescence may cause long-term damage to the immune system, resulting in diseases such as multiple sclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease and rheumatoid arthritis in adulthood.
Of course, people who have never touched marijuana can develop these diseases, but marijuana use during adolescence seems to promote a susceptibility.
The Study – What They Did
Over 10 days, Italian scientists injected mice with THC, the main active component of marijuana. The mice were at a life-cycle stage that corresponded to adolescence in humans (about 12-18 years).
A second group of mice were injected with a placebo.
(Mice are used in scientific experiments because of their genetic and biological similarity to humans.)
After the 10 days of treatment, the mice were left to go about their business for about two months. At this time, they had reached adulthood.
What They Found
The findings, published in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology, revealed that the THC in adolescent mice triggered severe alterations in the functioning of their immune system.
These dysfunctions lasted long after the marijuana abuse stopped.
As explained by John Wherry, Ph.D, the Deputy Editor of the journal, ‘The immune system is characterised by an impressive ability to ‘remember’ previous exposures and changes during the period of immune system development, especially early in life and can have important long-term consequences.’
Adolescence is a highly sensitive period for the development of key brain and body processes. Marijuana use during this critical time has dramatic irreversible consequences. These effects may not be evident immediately, but once the damage is done, it’s done.
![It’s the simple things that are everything. We know play, conversation, micro-connections, predictability, and having a responsive reliable relationship with at least one loving adult, can make the most profound difference in buffering and absorbing the sharp edges of the world. Not all children will get this at home. Many are receiving it from childcare or school. It all matters - so much.
But simple isn’t always easy.
Even for children from safe, loving, homes with engaged, loving parent/s there is so much now that can swallow our kids whole if we let it - the unsafe corners of the internet; screen time that intrudes on play, connection, stillness, sleep, and joy; social media that force feeds unsafe ideas of ‘normal’, and algorithms that hijack the way they see the world.
They don’t need us to be perfect. They just need us to be enough. Enough to balance what they’re getting fed when they aren’t with us. Enough talking to them, playing with them, laughing with them, noticing them, enjoying them, loving and leading them. Not all the time. Just enough of the time.
But first, we might have to actively protect the time when screens, social media, and the internet are out of their reach. Sometimes we’ll need to do this even when they fight hard against it.
We don’t need them to agree with us. We just need to hear their anger or upset when we change what they’ve become used to. ‘I know you don’t want this and I know you’re angry at me for reducing your screen time. And it’s happening. You can be annoyed, and we’re still [putting phones and iPads in the basket from 5pm] (or whatever your new rules are).’♥️](https://www.heysigmund.com/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)
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