A close family friend’s son was fine — smart, good grades, steady, all-around good kid — until he vaped strong cannabis when he went off to college. Right after that, he suddenly became so depressed he was nearly catatonic, and suicidal. The parents tried everything, no expense spared, to bet him help. The (very costly) mental health professionals said this was an unusually severe case, but it can happen. His mother had suffered from depression, so it may have “set off” an inherited predisposition to depression. Despite much love from his parents, family and friends and the best treatment money could buy, the young man ended up committing suicide in less than a year.
Extreme case? Yes. It’s also thought that while cannabis does not cause schizophrenia in those who do not have a genetic predisposition, it can “set it off” in those who do. It’s still debated, granted, but it does at least appear that cannabis use triggers psychotic episodes in those genetically at risk for schizophrenia:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-021-01330-w
And what about lowered IQ in teens who become heavy users early on, or regular users during their teen/young adult years? And what about other neurocognitive effects?
Persistent cannabis users show neuropsychological decline from childhood to midlife:
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1206820109
Impact of adolescent marijuana use on intelligence: Results from two longitudinal twin studies:
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1516648113
Smoke weed regularly in your teens (even the milder 1970s stuff), lose 8 IQ points (does not affect adults the same way):
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/healing-addiction/202007/does-cannabis-decrease-iq
Pot is not a totally harmless substance. If adults want to mess with it, fine. Lots of adults pickle their livers and brains by abusing alcohol. But it looks to be quite harmful to developing brains. And our brains continue to develop into our mid twenties, so ...
... it seems Southeast Asians had it right: traditionally, it was an “old folks” thing for relief of aches and pains. Young people wouldn’t be caught dead smoking it, any more than our young people would want to be caught dead taking Geritol and wearing Depends. (That’s now all changed there, sadly, thanks to Western influence.)
Interesting food for thought!