MONDAY, March 29, 2021 (HealthDay News) – A new study of twins found that teenage potty use may affect a child’s future chances of getting a good job with a high salary, mainly by affecting their education.
A teen who uses more marijuana than their identical twin is less likely to end up in a high-skilled, better-paid job than their brother or sister, according to the report.
This is not because pot use has irreversibly damaged the developing brain. The researchers found no evidence of permanent damage to the thinking, memory or mental health of a child from the use of marijuana in their teens.
Twins who smoked more pot did worse in school, which brought them on a rockier way of life, said lead researcher Jonathan Schaefer, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Minnesota’s Institute of Child Development.
These teens, on average, had lower GPA, less academic motivation, more discipline issues, and were more likely to be with antisocial peers, researchers found.
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“These study results suggest that the long-term effects of cannabis use in adolescents may be limited to short-term drug effects with longer-term effects,” Schäfer said. “It could be the case that cannabis use leads to a temporary decrease in motivation, causing your teen to get lower grades, which ultimately leads to a lower level of education.”
For this study, Schaefer and his colleagues analyzed data on 2,410 identical twins obtained from three different long-term studies at the Minnesota Center for Twin and Family Research.
Many studies have linked early pot use to negative outcomes later in life, but that earlier research couldn’t rule out other factors that could affect success, mental health problems, or impaired thinking skills, Schäfer said.
Identical twins share the same genetics, family background, and environment. Therefore, studying the differences between twins can help researchers filter out other potential factors.
“The twins who reported more cannabis use in adolescence also tended to show poorer socio-economic results, especially educational qualifications – they went less far in school,” said Schäfer. “But they didn’t have significantly higher rates of diagnosable mental health problems, and we didn’t see any evidence of lower cognitive abilities.”
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The results were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on March 29.
The legalization of marijuana in the US has made parents and teens more likely to perceive pot as harmless. However, research like this shows it is not, said Linda Richter, vice president of prevention research and analysis at the Partnership to End Addiction.
The use of pots can affect regions of the brain associated with learning, memory, and attention, Richter noted.
“This study and previous research suggest that these effects may not persist once cannabis use stops, but that the short-term effects of cannabis on brain function, which are critical to academic success, may have a downstream impact,” Richter said.
“When a child faces academic challenges due to cannabis use in middle or high school, it can limit the quality and quantity of post-secondary academic and professional choices and experiences, and hence their success in adulthood,” she said.
One legalization advocate noted, however, that there are other possible explanations for the results.
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Many well-paying jobs require drug testing, which would discourage young adults who like marijuana from pursuing lucrative careers in these sectors, said Paul Armentano, deputy director of NORML. Instead, they could choose to work in the service industry that doesn’t involve drug testing.
Armentano added that the fact that marijuana was arrested for marijuana possession can also affect a teen’s records, which could affect his or her ability to get financial aid or job opportunities for college.
“Ultimately, the authors should have considered the possibility that those most likely to use cannabis may simply want to seek employment opportunities in areas that are less or less conventional, at least early in life,” continued Armentano. “This could include efforts such as working for the Park Service, the Peace Corps, charitable advocacy, etc. It seems like a major oversight that none of these potential variables were mentioned.”
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is more concerned with the use of marijuana among teenagers.
SOURCES: Jonathan Schaefer, PhD, Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Child Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis; Linda Richter, PhD, Vice President, Prevention Research and Analysis, Addiction Ending Partnership, New York City; Paul Armentano, Deputy Director, NORML; Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, March 29, 2021
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