The Addiction Policy Forum and Prevention Policy Alliance have created a new video for kids, showing how repeated substance misuse can hijack the brain, and why the “One Choice” to delay use until the brain has reached maturity is so important.
MORE EVIDENCE ON LINK BETWEEN DAILY HIGH-POTENCY MARIJUANA USE AND PSYCHOSIS
Although there is ample evidence linking marijuana and psychosis, a new study in The Lancet Psychiatry is the first to show the impact on population rates of psychosis. Reuters reports “one in five new cases of psychosis across the sites studied could be linked to daily cannabis use, and more than one in 10 linked to use of high-potency cannabis. This would mean that if high potency cannabis were no longer available, the incidence of psychosis in Amsterdam, for example, would be expected to drop to 18.8 from 37.9 per 100,000 people a year, and in London to 31.9 from 45.7 per 100,000 people a year.”
WE CANNOT LET E-CIGARETTES BECOME AN ON-RAMP FOR TEENAGE ADDICTION - OP-ED
An op-ed in The Washington Post from Alex M. Azar, Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Scott Gottlieb, Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), brings much-needed attention to the growing problem of youth use of nicotine through e-cigarettes: In one year fom 2017 to 2018, “the number of high-school-age children reporting use of e-cigarettes rose by more than 75 percent. Use among middle-schoolers also increased nearly 50 percent. That is an epidemic… The surge in e-cigarette use by teenagers is alarming because nicotine is highly addictive and can harm brain development, which continues into young adulthood [emphasis added]. Worse, kids who start on e-cigarettes are actually more likely than non-user peers to migrate to smoking tobacco…”
This is a valuable national-level wake-up call on the part of two key federal leaders, and it focuses exactly on a central theme of the ONE CHOICE prevention message: zero use of alcohol, nicotine, cannabis, and any other substance that can skew teen brain development toward addiction as an adult.
Read the full op-ed here.
NEW STUDY SHOWS MORE YOUTH THAN EVER BEFORE ARE MAKING THE ONE CHOICE
According to a new study, over the last 40 years there has gradually been an enormous increase in the number of teens who are making just One Choice: zero use of alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, or any other substance that can skew their brain development towards adult addiction.
In the video below, Robert L. DuPont, MD, President of the Institute for Behavior and Health, and Sharon Levy, MD, Director of the Adolescent Substance Use and Addiction Program at Boston Children's Hospital, discuss their study showing this positive long-term trend.
PARENTS AND STUDENT PEERS CAN HELP PREVENT HIGH SCHOOL OPIOID USE - PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE
Columnist Rich Lord, outlines some ways parents and students can help prevent teen drug use. Combining advice from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and other experts on teen drug use, Lord gives detailed advice to help teens make One Choice for a better future.
Read the full column here.
NEW STUDY ON NEGATIVE LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF HEAVY MARIJUANA USE ON BRAIN FUNCTION AND BEHAVIOR
A study published in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging looked at the effects of heavy marijuana use on brain function and behavior. The accompanying press release summarizes, "Young people with cannabis dependence have altered brain function that may be the source of emotional disturbances and increased psychosis risk that are associated with cannabis abuse. The alterations were most pronounced in people who started using cannabis at a young age [emphasis added]. The findings reveal potential negative long-term effects of heavy cannabis use on brain function and behavior, which remain largely unknown despite the drug’s wide use and efforts to legalize the substance."
Read the press release here.
Access the full study here.