It seems that nearly every month, marijuana use for medicinal or recreational purposes are being legalized. I live just south of Cincinnati, Ohio and most of our news is Ohio news. This past week, one of the big news stories was the opening of the first marijuana shop to open within the Cincinnati area. However, one must have an official medical marijuana card and even then, one is limited to the amount they can purchase.

For several years, we hear about all of the medical benefits that come from marijuana products, many of which do not contain the ingredients that makes one ‘high’. However, in other states like Colorado, marijuana is legalized not only for medicinal purposes, but also for recreational use – getting ‘high’.

Supporters of legalized marijuana claim that there are no harmful effects of smoking marijuana. They say that alcohol is worse and does more damage.

Last year, I shared about some of the harmful effects of marijuana. The recreational use in Colorado has led to accidental deaths, increases in auto accidents, hospital visits from a health condition directly connected to marijuana use.

Yet, many people, adults, parents and teens still believe that using marijuana has no real negative impact, like stronger drugs do.

For those people, I direct them to a recent study that shows otherwise, especially for teenagers and young adults:

“A survey from 2018 had found that 2.1 million students from middle and high schools have smoked marijuana at least once. A new study looked at the effects of marijuana or cannabis on the brains of adolescents.”

“The results of the study were published in the latest issue of the Journal of Neuroscience this week. The researchers were alarmed to find that marijuana or cannabis can affect the teenage brains after even a single use.”

“The team of researchers looked at the brains of 46 fourteen year old students from England, Ireland, France and Germany. They noted that those of the participants who had smoked just one or two joints had a higher brain volume compared to the teenagers that did not. The gray matter in these teenagers was larger. This area of the brain is altered with maturity of the brain. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) says that with aging the brain size normally decreases. The researchers have said that this study shows that marijuana could affect the normal aging process of the brain.”

“Hugh Garavan, lead author of the study and a professor of psychiatry at the University of Vermont School of Medicine, explained that the cortical region of the brain of these teenagers were ‘going through a process of thinning.’ He said that the normal maturation and pruning process of the brain was being affected by the marijuana. ‘So, one possibility is that the cannabis use has disrupted this pruning process, resulting in larger volumes (i.e., a disruption of typical maturation) in the cannabis users. Another possibility is that the cannabis use has led to a growth in neurons and in the connections between them,’ he said.”

In other words, smoking just one or two joints of marijuana is hindering the normal maturing of the brain. This is NOT a good thing, but one that can result in other problems, especially later on. If the brain isn’t maturing properly, then it’s possible the decision-making abilities of these teens, or when they become adults, could also be impaired.

As marijuana is being legalized in more places, more research is taking place and there is enough of this research to prove that marijuana use IS harmful in a number of ways.