Depressed teens more likely to try pot
Report: Depression-marijuana combo can also increase chance of addiction
updated 1:35 p.m. ET May 23, 2008
WASHINGTON - Depression, teens and marijuana are a dangerous mix that can lead to dependency, mental illness or suicidal thoughts, according to a White House report being released Friday.
A teen who has been depressed at some point in the past year is more than twice as likely to have used marijuana as teens who have not reported being depressed — 25 percent compared with 12 percent, said the report by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
“Marijuana is a more consequential substance of abuse than our culture has treated it in the last 20 years,” said John Walters, director of the office. “This is not just youthful experimentation that they’ll get over as we used to think in the past.”
Smoking marijuana can lead to more serious problems, Walters said in an interview.
For example, using marijuana increases the risk of developing mental disorders by 40 percent, the report said. And teens who smoke pot at least once a month over a yearlong period are three times more likely to have suicidal thoughts than nonusers, it said.
The report also cited research that showed that teens who smoke marijuana when feeling depressed were more than twice as likely as their peers to abuse or become addicted to pot — 8 percent compared with 3 percent.
Experts who have worked with children say there’s nothing harmless about marijuana.
“I’ve seen many, many kids’ lives negatively impacted and taken off track because of marijuana,” said Elizabeth Stanley-Salazar, director of adolescent services for Phoenix House treatment centers in California. “It’s somewhat Russian roulette. There are so many factors, emotional, psychological, biological. You can’t predict the experimentation and how it will impact a kid.”
The drug control policy office analyzed about a dozen studies looking at marijuana use, including research by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Overall, marijuana use among teens has decreased 25 percent since 2001, down to about 2.3 million kids who used pot at least once a month, the drug control office said.
While the drop is encouraging, Walters appealed to parents to recognize signs of possible drug use and depression.
“It’s not something you look the other way about when your teen starts appearing careless about their grooming, withdrawing from the family, losing interest in daily activities,” Walters said. “Find out what’s wrong.”
Depressed teens more likely to try pot - Kids and parenting - MSNBC.com
I'm sorry, Leibling, but this is just more of the White House's propoganda directed at the war on drugs. This study is extremely questionable, and is making assumptions that cannot be supported.
They are attempting to portray marijuana use as the cause of mental illness, and this is totally innacurate. It is an attempt to portray marijuana as the cause of teen age problems, and that is totally innacurate.
Carelessness about grooming, withdrawal from the family, loosing interest in daily activities are all cardinal signs of depression, and are consistent whether the depressed teen is using marijuana or not. The issue that needs to be address is the depression. If the signs of depression are ignored, then of course the teen will attempt, in some cases, to self medicate. They want relief from the dpression.
By the same token, a teen who is not depressed, and smokes marijuana, will not exhibit any of these symptoms. Quite obviously, it is not the marijuana that is responsible, but the mental state of the teen. Depressed teens will engage in all kinds of high rish behaviors...unprotected sex, hard drug use, abuse of prescription medications, alcohol use, driving recklessly and without regard for their life, etc,etc,etc.
In regard to depression and marijuana leading to addiciton: addiction has been shown to be a genetic predisposition. It is possible that the same genetic predisposition to addiction is also responsible for a predisposition to depression. That is what causes the addiciton. A genetic predispositon. Give someone with an addictive personality any mood altering substance, including prescription medications, and they run the risk of becoming addicted to that substance. They also run the risk of food addictions, sexual addictions, alcohol addictions, and addictions to risky forms of behavior. That is not the direct result of having smoked marijuana, but the direct result of their genetic make up and environmental influence.
