Views on marijuana have changed drastically in the past two decades, with changing laws and general usage becoming much more common. However, just because people are using it more does not mean that its misuse and abuse do not have consequences.Unfortunately, that’s the impression many people are under. In fact, according to a Monitoring the Future Study from 2017, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), high school-age teenagers’ perception of the risk of marijuana use is the lowest it’s been in more than four decades.While it’s true that a fatal marijuana overdose has never been reported, and that the odds of overdosing at all are incredibly low at best, chronic abuse can still pose a significant danger. Health problems someone can expect to experience include:
Permanent short-term memory issues
Chronic coughing and breathing problems
Increased susceptibility to lung infections
Depending on the age of the person abusing the drug, they may also experience serious brain development problems, including difficulty learning and retaining new information, as well as impaired cognition and an inability to effectively process complex thought. Similarly, pregnant women who regularly abuse the drug are likely to give birth to dangerously underweight babies with a significant risk of developing neurological and behavioral problems.While marijuana is not classified as a psychedelic substance, it can trigger latent mental health disorders like schizophrenia in much the same way as LSD, even if someone has not yet begun exhibiting symptoms. If someone who is already dealing with schizophrenia uses marijuana, they are likely to experience a worsening of symptoms, and potentially even psychosis.
Marijuana is one of the most common substances involved in car accidents, second only to alcohol.
Studies show that between 9% and 30% of people who use develop an addiction to it.
In 2016, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) reported that about 4 million people in the United States met the diagnostic criteria for marijuana addiction.