Q. Did You Ever Smoke Pot? A. It’s Complicated.

[groovedaddy]

Many years ago, when I was a resident in pediatrics, an adolescent patient asked me if I had ever smoked pot. It wasn’t a friendly question, more an oh-yeah-says-you response to my own inquiries, warning me off.

No patient has asked me that for decades. But recently, I have found myself in several all-pediatrician conversations about the topic.

Doctors, and the parents who look to them for advice, need a way to integrate their standards of honesty with what we know about preventing substance abuse — and with new research that makes it clear we know a lot more today than anyone did when we were young. (Which may help explain some of the dumb decisions made by so many of us, including me.)

In particular, scientists understand much more about the neurobiology of the teenage brain and the risks of experimenting with drugs and alcohol during adolescence. While we used to think the brain was relatively mature by 16 or 18, in fact it is still developing into the mid-20s.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/health/views/13klass.html?th&emc=th

[texastoast]

1. Yep

There's a great parent guide called "Yes, Your Teenager Is Crazy" that talks about brain development in teens, combined with that strange hormonal cocktail of that age. Put those two factors together with THC and some serious cranial misfirings can occur.

Best to enjoy pot after that brain has developed and college is a done deal.

Just my thinking.

[costahawk1987]

5. I concur...

Everyone under the age of 21 should turn over their ganja to me--especially the hydro!

[damntexdem]

2. Yes, when I was a bit older (20s), so able to handle it.

The same goes for drinking alcohol.

[mrcheerful]

3. Why yes I did when I was younger and not experienced enough to know the harmful effects that using

drugs caused in my life at the time I was using them nor did I realize how using those drugs clouded my judgment or the outcomes that clouded my ability to deal with lifes reality. Instead of dealing with my problems I got high and ignored the problem until I had no choice left but to deal with the problem, which because of my lack reasoning clearly had me make some really bad choices that, after I stopped using the drugs, I can now see how bad those decisions were. I'm only trying to help you not make the same mistakes as I did and everyone I knew that used made the same exact mistakes as I was making.

It is about using your experiences to help others avoid the same pit falls and traps. I freely admit that when I was using I did so because it was fun, but as time went on it stopped being fun and became a full time 24/7 job to stay high. It is all a matter of how you use your personal experiences and as an added bonus young folks can't blow you off as someone who doesn't know because they never used the drug.

[groovedaddy]

4. We live in a culture that promotes drugs in a big way. Watch the evening news on any network or

certain magazines are loaded with pharma ads. When I speak with mental healthcare pros about this, most respond: "but it's the illegal drugs that are the problem." Or the drugs that are legal with a prescription but can prove to be quite devastating, even deadly, to some people. Besides, kids are being given a wide variety of drugs for mental issues: ADD, ADHD, etc. There is a proven correlation with the use of certain drugs in youth and later drug abuse/addiction problems.
The underlying theme is that drugs ARE a solution to many, many problems. It's difficult to get kids to realize the potential problems in this environment. Maybe teenagers have always been rebelious, but our corrupt, hypocritical system doesn't help matters. So many feel they are being lied to (and they are) that when the truth is put in front of them, they are inclined not to believe it.

[irislake]

6. Back in the seventies

a neurologist and his wife (a psychologist)had a pot party to which they invited the entire medical and surgical staff of the Toronto hospital)where my ex-husband (an orthopaedic surgeon)was on staff. We sat on the floor in his basement and passed the joints around.

I had never tried it before and did not use it again because it merely altered my sense of time and did not cause euphoria. I stuck to alcohol. (Big mistake but enough about that.)

Everybody on staff survived using the stuff and nearly all of them have since retired.

I come from a family of alcoholics. There is NO comparison, friends. Alcohol is much more dangerous that pot!

P.S. After all those years I took a lil drink of marijuana tea and ate some illegal cookies to give myself the munchies. I had cancer and could not eat. Lost 50 pounds while doctors and nurses tore out their hair and begged me to eat. (They refused to prescribe marijuana the dummies.)

Friends brought in the illegal substance and I ate and ate and ate.

After 8 chemo sessions my cancer is in remission.

I keep meaning to tell my oncologist what got me eating.

It is a useful substance if you ask me!

[bemildred]

7. More speculativve drivel from the drug warriors. nt