Pot Damages the teen Brain

If you're the parent of teenagers, it's time to talk about marijuana. So, what do you say when they retort, 'But it's being legalized everywhere!' Not true, but it is heading there. Dave, your kids are grown, but we can help parents inform their teens and it's timely because a recent survey found over one-third of high schoolers have smoked pot in the past year. These kids may not know their developing brain is especially sensitive to the effects of cannabis because the brain continues to evolve into early adulthood.

In one study, when scientists injected adolescent rats with a synthetic cannabinoid, similar to the active ingredient in marijuana, they saw a large spike in the brain's excitatory circuit. This circuit plays a role in reward and addiction and is called the nigrostriatal dopaminergic pathway. This pathway changes dynamically throughout puberty, so teens smoking marijuana may make themselves highly vulnerable to drug addiction.

The scary thing is that marijuana can cause abnormalities in this pathway which are also linked to schizophrenia and depression. Marijuana can also disrupt a teen's process of developing a good inhibitory system in the prefrontal cortex, so that they won't be able to plan or control their behavior as adults. It also may lower intelligence by changing activities in the brain that control growth of neurons in the prefrontal cortex. It's especially true during the later years of maturing.

So, parents, here you have it. Sure, smoking marijuana may have its rightful place, but when? And for whom? Those are vital questions we all have to ask.