IS MARIJUANA REALLY HARMLESS?

Pot Use at a Young Age Can Affect Development

Jay and Hope Jones are like many parents who work hard to provide for their
three children. They sent their kids to private schools near Los Angeles,
wanting to ensure their entry into the finest universities. The Joneses
also wanted to protect their kids from some of the problems associated with
the teen-age years -- mainly, access to illegal and recreational drugs.

About 10 years ago, when their oldest son, Eric, was a freshman in high
school, Jones heard her son on the phone with a friend. She sensed
something was odd about the conversation.

"If I didn't know better," she remembers turning to her husband and saying,
"that was a drug deal going on."

They confronted Eric, but he adamantly denied it.

Jones considered herself an involved parent -- always checking where her
children were going, calling other parents and enforcing rules. She was a
stay-at-home mother and if her kids' had parties at home, she constantly
checked to make sure they were staying out of trouble.

She thought she knew all the signs of drug abuse. But when Eric became
withdrawn and moody, her husband dismissed his behavior.

"Jay told me that 'kids will be kids,' " she recalled.

Things got worse and four years ago, then 20-year-old Eric was kicked out
of the house. His parents told him that when he was ready for help, to let
them know.

Three months later, Eric came home and told his parents he thought he had a
problem. He checked into rehab for 30 days and came out sober. It was then
that the Joneses discovered that Eric had been smoking pot since seventh
grade, and that his younger brother Doug and sister Melissa had soon
followed. As it turned out, all three of them had dealt drugs under their
parents' noses.

Jones wishes she had seen the signs earlier. Misconceptions surrounding
pot, she said, are part of the problem. Popular consensus is that marijuana
is harmless, especially since it is used for medicinal purposes. Besides,
some of today's parents are children of the 1960s, when drug use was more
in mode.

"The younger people begin using marijuana, especially before age 21, the
likelier they are to become addicted to an addictive substance," said Dr.
Marvin Seppala, chief medical officer at the Hazelden Foundation, a
recovery clinic in Minnesota with centers in Chicago, New York and Oregon.
"Their addiction is both physiological and psychological."

The brain is still developing -emotionally, cognitively, intellectually,
spiritually, Seppala said.

"Studies on the brain have shown that pot use alters the hippocampus and
affects short-term memory," he said. "As an adolescent, there are
remarkable experiences that contribute to growth . . . these need to be set
down into memory -- and pot use stops this."

He said that youths who smoke pot become numb to their feelings during an
important developmental time of life. Marijuana can also lead to arrested
emotional development -- for example, a 22-year-old who began smoking at
age 13 will relate to society with an eighth grade point of view, he said.

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML, does
not agree that one can become physically addicted to cannabis sativa, the
medical name of marijuana.

"Government research to date indicates that marijuana is not physically
addictive, and that psychiatrists describe chronic marijuana use as causing
mild psychological dependence," said Allen St. Pierre, executive director
of NORML. He said the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders, which is published by the American Psychiatric Association and
covers all mental health disorders, classifies marijuana use as the same
psychological condition for compulsive video game users.

However, NORML does agree that pot use, like drinking alcohol, is not for
the underage.

"Arguably, alcohol is consumed legally at age 21 because the brain of the
youth has reached full development," said St. Pierre. "One can argue before
a young person reaches full brain development in their early 20s, they
should not use or have legal access to marijuana."

The Jones family has had a remarkable turnaround, but it has not been easy.
With counseling and 12-step programs, Jones says all her children are back
on the right track. Eric is sober. He is an English major at California
State University at Northridge with one year to go. Doug, now 21, is also
sober and studying at a local community college and working in his dad's
business. Melissa, 22, is studying to be a firefighter and holds two jobs.

Below are some questions and answers surrounding marijuana and youth:

Q. Is marijuana widely used among teens?

A. Every day, almost 5,000 American youth ages 12 to 17 try marijuana for
the first time, and more than one out of 20 students in high school smoke
marijuana on school property, according to the White House Office of
National Drug Control Policy. An estimated 5.6 million Americans age 12 or
older reported problems with illicit drug use in the past year, and more
than 2 million met diagnostic criteria for dependence on marijuana/
hashish, according to the 2001 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse.

Q. Since "kids will be kids," isn't experimenting with marijuana harmless?

A. While some kids may use pot once in a while and not all pot smokers
become drug addicts, "marijuana use, no matter how innocently it may begin,
is a slippery slope," said Carol Falkowski, director of research
communications of the Hazelden Foundation and author of "Dangerous Drugs:
An Easy-to-Use Reference for Parents and Professionals" (Hazelden
Publishing, $16.95).

Q. Is marijuana addictive?

A. There is a disagreement as to whether pot smoking leads to addiction or
use of other drugs. The Hazeldon Foundation believes that marijuana itself
can be addictive, physically and psychologically. However, NORML does not
agree, citing studies that compare marijuana users with compulsive
video-game players.

Q. Has marijuana become more potent?

A. With improvements in technology and more advanced growing techniques,
today's marijuana is twice as strong as it was in the mid-1980s, according
to a study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The government believes
this potency can hasten the progression from abuse to dependence. NORML,
however, believes the increase in marijuana's strength is minuscule and
that smoking pot alone is not harmful. St. Pierre said that "the percent
increase is insignificant -from 3.5 to 5.5 percent. With this there are no
accompanying physical or mental health issues relating to more potent
marijuana."

Q. Is marijuana harmful to young people?

A. Getting high impairs judgment, and that can lead to risky
decision-making. Getting high can also contribute to general apathy,
irresponsible behavior and risky choices, some authorities say. And teens
who use drugs are five times more likely to have sex than teens who do not
use drugs, according to the National Center on Addiction and Substance
Abuse at Columbia University. Marijuana affects motivation and can also
lead to significant health, social, learning and behavioral problems at a
critical time in a young person's development. And, according to a study by
the Research Triangle Institute, teens who use marijuana are twice as
likely to drop out of high school than those who don't.

Q. Does marijuana lead to use of harsher drugs?

A. There are two points of view. The White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy says research shows that adolescent marijuana users are
three times more likely to end up drug dependent than adult users. They
also say that the earlier kids start using marijuana, the more likely they
are to become adults who are dependent on drugs. But NORML's findings are
that only a fraction of pot smokers go on to use harder drugs, "and an even
smaller faction will go on to have an abusive relationship with other
drugs," St. Pierre said.

Q. Is there anything that can be done to stop kids from experimenting with
marijuana?

A. Yes. "Research tells us that parents' attitudes about marijuana
influence their child's decisions about illicit drug use," said John P.
Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control
Policy. But some parents miss the boat, he said, thinking that smoking
marijuana is merely experimentation when actually it's setting the
groundwork for the future. As role models, parents need to stay involved
and informed. Keep up with what the kids are doing and set limits with
clear rules and consequences.