It is no doubt that there is controversy amongst those is the United States as to whether the drug, marijuana, is addictive or not addictive. Some argue that research supports the idea that marijuana is addictive, while others argue that there is not enough research on marijuana to warrant a definite conclusion. To settle the argument, there is a scientific term called Marijuana Use Disorder, but what causes the arguments is a misunderstanding. Not everyone develops Marijuana Use Disorder, but at least 30% of people who have used marijuana have.
Marijuana Use Disorder comes after high doses and long-term use of marijuana. This disorder is defined as being dependent on marijuana after the individual starts to experience withdrawal symptoms like irritability, mood swings, and insomnia after stopping the use of marijuana for a week. 9% of marijuana users become dependent, but this increases to 17% for teenagers who use marijuana. In 2010, about 360,000 people went into a drug treatment center for their marijuana dependency and 43% were under 21, which agrees with the other statistic (17%) that marijuana has a higher effect on the brain of younger individuals. If that’s not enough, in 2016, 4 million people aged 12 and older were reported to be dependent on marijuana.
In 2011 there were a significant amount of emergency room visits for people who smoked marijuana with reports of nausea, vomiting, high blood pressure, panic attacks, and paranoia. Sometimes marijuana is laced with other drugs, but there is no way to determine this as true or false. Either way, the marijuana sold on the streets has been shown to produce negative health effects and dangerous ones like high blood pressure which, if untreated, can eventually lead to stroke or cardiac arrest. The withdrawal symptoms not yet mentioned for marijuana include nightmares, anger, headaches, depression, decreased appetite, and cravings for marijuana.
Different factors like the length of marijuana use and how much was smoked in one sitting can affect the severity of withdrawal symptoms and whether the individual will become dependent on marijuana. A study would have to measure how much a user smokes and observe the results of each interval of smoking to determine how much is too much and how much will create the negative effects mentioned. Regardless of this, however, marijuana smoke has been shown to have negative second-hand smoke effects like learning and memory problems on children during pregnancy, soon after birth, and during adolescence.
Long-term effects of marijuana use have been explored by researchers and they have found the effects of IQ loss, reduced brain regions of learning, memory, and impulse control later in life. All of these problems resulted from marijuana use in adolescence and there do not seem to be any studies on the long-term effects of marijuana use on individuals who start using after age 21. Overall, most studies conclude that marijuana use can cause cognitive impairment, but that this depends on the age of the individual when they started using, which makes sense because the brain is most sensitive to foreign substances during development and the brain is still developing during adolescence.
If you or someone is struggling with a marijuana or related dependency, consider seeking professional help at an addiction center like Asana Recovery. Asana Recovery is a nonjudgmental, supportive community where multiple therapies and treatments are offered. Call (949) 438-4504 to learn more about their treatment programs.