Substance abuse among teenagers is on the rise and it’s not tik or heroin that parents should be worried about, according to Rahme who is the founder of Changes Addiction Rehab in Johannesburg.
“There is a big belief that marijuana is safe, that it’s an innocent drug. Teens smoking weed are playing Russian roulette with their mental health,” she said.
Evidence shows that heavy and regular cannabis use in childhood and adolescence has a more severe and long-lasting negative impact when compared to marijuana use in adulthood.
Younger brains tend to be more vulnerable to the negative impact of weed than the brains of adults.
The cognitive deficits seen in adolescents are similar to those seen in adults, but they are more long-lasting and less likely to be reversible after cannabis use is stopped. These deficits include problems with attention, learning, and memory.
“When I do assessments with youngsters, I ask them what they think the worst drug is. They often say ‘tik’ or ‘heroin’. Their eyes pop out of their heads when I tell them that, for us in the treatment industry, the worst drug is marijuana,” said Rahme.
“Kids left to use marijuana are opening up the door to irreversible mental health conditions. Every single patient who presents with symptoms of psychosis in our facility is using marijuana.”
According to a summary of the evidence by the World Health Organisation, using marijuana with a higher THC content ‘may increase the risk for schizophrenia and lower the age of onset of the disease’.
This is especially true for people who start smoking the drug before adulthood. A 15-year follow-up study, that included data from over 50 000 men in Sweden, found that those who tried cannabis by the age of 18 were 2.4 times more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia than those who did not.
A 27-year follow-up on the same cohort estimated that 13% of schizophrenia cases could have been prevented if none of the study participants had used marijuana.
And, according to Rahme, kids are starting to experiment with drugs as early as five years of age. However, the average age of initiation into drug or alcohol use is between 12 and 14 years old.
“It’s critical that parents and caregivers don’t wait until drug use has progressed into drug abuse or addiction because by then it may be too late. Teenagers’ brains are very much still developing. I encourage parents to act as soon as they discover their child is using drugs.”
Rahme advised parents to seek professional help and join a support group.
Changes Rehab started its Adolescent Substance Abuse Programme in October last year in response to calls from local parents and schools who needed help for those children already suffering from the consequences of drug and alcohol use.
In addition to risks related to mental health, research has found that marijuana use before the age of 15 is related to dropping out of school early. Long-term heavy cannabis use in children and adolescents is also associated with negative consequences later in life such as having a low income, being unemployed, and using other drugs.
“Unfortunately many people don’t realise that addiction is a recognised mental health disorder and, all too often, there is a very soft approach to marijuana specifically. People are not scared of it when they should be terrified.”
