When it comes to marijuana use on a young person's body and mind, what do we know? What does the science say?
"The science is pretty clear on the effects of marijuana and two key critical periods of brain development," said Dr. Sheryl Ryan, a fellow with the American Academy of Pediatrics. "One is during fetal life, fetal development, and second is really during adolescence."
Ryan said data shows developing brains up to the mid-20s are vulnerable to the effects of the psychoactive component in cannabis, THC.
"THC, which crosses into the blood-brain barrier, attaches to the cannabinoid receptors that are present in the human brain and that THC sort of basically hijacks the natural cannabinoids that we have in our system that are very important for a number of functions, and hijacks that and maybe disrupts some of that natural normal brain development that we see in adolescence and into young adulthood," Ryan said.
She said, "We see memory problems in kids who are regular, heavy users. We see deficits in memory. We see things we call the Amotivational Syndrome, where kids have lower school performance. We also see difficulty in cognition, and we also are seeing higher rates of anxiety, depression and psychosis, especially in young people who have a family history that makes them vulnerable."
What we don't fully know is what all the long-lasting effects might be.
"Those receptors are involved in development of the brain and play a lot of roles within your neurologic system and the body in general, and they're not fully understood," said Dr. Ryan Marino, a Cleveland medical toxicologist, addiction specialist and emergency medicine doctor. "I think one of the things is all of this interplay with adding cannabis into the body and changing the way those receptors are functioning, signaling, and developing during brain development is what people are worried about, and we don't have a good answer right now."
Scott Osiecki is the CEO of the ADAMHS Board of Cuyahoga County and said they are a resource to help people understand and overcome addiction, whatever the substance, including marijuana, which he said many people are surprised to hear that you can be addicted to it.
"For a long time, people said that marijuana is not addictive, but now we’ve been finding out that it’s actually one in 10 people can become addicted to using marijuana, and if they start before the age of 18, it’s about one in six," Osiecki said.
To answer the outstanding questions about the long-term impact of marijuana on the developing brain, doctors said we need longitudinal studies.
Under way right now is the National Institute of Health’s ABCD Study. It is the largest long-term study of brain development and child health in the country, following almost 12,000 9- to 10-year-olds into adulthood to find out how things like marijuana use and more affect their brains, bodies, and overall quality of life.
In the meantime, Ryan said she worries about the science getting lost in the messaging. That legalization without education could mean young people see marijuana as being risk-free.
"How do you counteract that so that young people understand that it just may be much different for them to use it than adults," she said.
The doctors also say more studies are needed to consider the growing potency of marijuana in recent years and the different ways of ingestion and dosing.
What about marijuana-based medications for children?
The FDA recently approved a drug that contains a purified form of CBD that has been shown to be effective in controlling certain seizures. Also, there are two FDA-approved THC-based medications to treat nausea from chemotherapy.
