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US warns teen pot smoking
can prompt suicide, depression
marijuana-picture.com
Marijuana plant.
By Stephen Collinson / AFP
05/06/2005

The United States warned Tuesday that new research showed that marijuana users in their early teens risked slumping into a cycle of depression, schizophrenia and even suicide.
A new government report found that adults who had used marijuana before the age of 12 were twice as likely to be classified this year as having serious mental health problems as those who waited until they were 18 to use the drug.

US anti-drugs czar John Walters said new and historic data from the United States and abroad showed marijuana was often miscategorised as a “safe” drug.

“Marijuana use, particularly during the teen years, can lead to depression, thoughts of suicide, and schizophrenia,” he told a press conference here.
Charles Curie, administrator of the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, (SAMHSA) cautioned that children were at increasing risk. “We have found that the younger a person starts smoking marijuana, the greater the likelihood they have of developing an addiction and serious mental illnesses later in life,” Curie said.

The SAMHSA report found that in 2002 and 2003, 12.5 percent of people 18 years or older who reported lifetime marijuana use were classified as having serious mental illness.
Campaigners who seek the decriminalisation of marijuana use have long questioned the extent to which the use of such ‘soft drugs’ is harmful.

Walters appeared to try to short-circuit that tactic by concentrating on young children, and by citing a sheaf of research to bolster his claim.
A study conducted at the Christchurch School of Medicine in New Zealand of 2,400 young people found for instance that marijuana use among young people moderatly increases the risk of psychopathology.

Another New Zealand study over 21 years suggested that particularly heavy or regular use of marijuana among children was associated with later increases in depression, suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts.

Authorities also cited a British study which found that as many as one in four people may have a genetic profile that makes marijuana more likely to trigger psychotic disorders.
An expert in drug misuse from Glasgow University who travelled to Washington to back the Bush administration’s new campaign, said doubters may never be convinced.

“Research in this instance is quite clearly showing that there are serious mental health consequences for those young people smoking marijuana,” said Professor Neil McKeganey.
“It will not be the case for everybody, but it will be the case for a significant minority. We don’t know who it is that is going to experience these mental problems.
“If we knew that, we could reassure the others who are not going to have mental problems and concentrate on those who are going to experience problems.”