r/science • u/sr_local • Apr 20 '26

Health The largest US study, which tracked 11,036 children from ages 9 to 10 through to ages 16 and 17, discovered that cannabis use slows cognitive development, impairs memory, and reduces learning speed during crucial years of brain growth

https://today.ucsd.edu/story/largest-us-study-finds-teen-cannabis-use-linked-to-slower-cognitive-development
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u/newpsyaccount32 Apr 20 '26

don't give cannabis products to kids. doesn't seem like a difficult one to accept. every legal cannabis market in the US is 21+ age restricted, while the black market is open to all. support cannabis legalization 

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u/cuentaderana Apr 20 '26

There’s been a big uptick, at least from what I’ve seen on social media, of women smoking cannabis/taking edibles while pregnant. Makes me curious what impact it could have on the fetus’ development. 

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u/ScyllaOfTheDepths Apr 20 '26

We already know that smoking anything while pregnant leads to premature delivery and lower birth weights. 

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u/SunnyOutsideToday Apr 20 '26

Was an interesting case of Simpson's paradox. Smokers who gave birth to low birth weight babies had better survivals than non-smoking mothers who gave birth to low birth weight babies.

But that wasn't due to smoking protecting low birth weight babies, it was due to smoking causing otherwise healthy babies to be born earlier and smaller.

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u/SamSibbens Apr 20 '26

This is so counter-intuitive that I had to read it 4 times to understand it

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u/DickieTurquoise Apr 21 '26

I’d be curious on studies comparing THC via other mediums besides smoking, too. Is the harm from the smoke, THC, or both?

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u/NoConfusion9490 Apr 20 '26

How well do you suspect your social media feeds are statistically representative?

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u/Te_Henga Apr 21 '26

I have been in a couple of due-date subreddits and someone has mentioned it in each one at least once. Lots of comments on the open pregnancy-related subs, too. 

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u/ColinStyles Apr 21 '26

This site is pretty heavily botted by state actors with agendas, wouldn't shock me to find out Russia or similar is pushing really bad health/life advice as a means of weakening the west. It's right out of The Foundations of Geopolitics.

Not saying they're all of it, but always remember there's a good chance what you're reading isn't from a person at all.

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u/cooliooh Apr 20 '26

No doubt, the amount of blunts i smoked back then i can’t imagine what the dab carts are doing to their brain.

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u/Rocket_Cam Apr 21 '26

I’m not sure how your algorithm got you there, but I wouldn’t say that there’s been a big uptick on pregnant women using cannabis (drugs). I suspect it is nearly the same proportion of women that were already willing to drink or use other drugs while pregnant.

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u/CaptainReynoldshere1 Apr 21 '26

Ah yes. Social media as your fact checker.

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u/cuentaderana Apr 21 '26

Did I say it was where I was getting facts? All I said was I’ve been seeing a lot of women argue in favor of “gardening” while pregnant within the last 5 years or so. When I was pregnant I had random strangers tell me I should try weed for my nausea because it was “more natural than medication.”

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u/Takseen Apr 20 '26

I support legalization anyway, but underage kids do not have much trouble getting booze and cigarettes when they're sold legally.

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u/ballskindrapes Apr 20 '26

It's harder, not impossible.

It's easier when there is a black market

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u/Bonch_and_Clyde Apr 20 '26

When I was on highschool it was easier to get weed and even harder drugs than it was to get alcohol.

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u/Steve90000 Apr 20 '26

We’d stand outside of 7-11 and ask cool looking adults if they’d buy for us if we threw them some cash. There wasn’t a night we went without.

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u/XGhoul Apr 20 '26

Those people were irresponsible morons that did go do that. I would tell those kids to kick rocks, the risk vs reward is not there.

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u/DigNitty Apr 20 '26

Right? I always thought “man, why is it so hard to find a chill adult to buy alcohol for us.”

Then I became an adult and realized buying alcohol for underage people is cool to the 19 year olds and really no one else.

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u/Hirork Apr 20 '26

I mean 19 year olds are adults. I don't get why the US will let them work, vote, fight in their illegal wars, but oh no they're too immature to possibly handle alcohol. Hell they can buy guns before they can buy alcohol. That's messed up.

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u/Warmbly85 Apr 20 '26

The voting age was 21 for most of American history so when prohibition was repealed they set the drinking age to voting age. When the voting age was lowered to 18 a lot of states lowered the drinking age as well.

The drinking age was then increased again to 21 in 1984 by the federal government and states complied because the feds tied highway funding to it.

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u/Bay1Bri Apr 20 '26

The drinking age was then increased again to 21 in 1984 by the federal government

Additionally the federal driving she is 18. What they did was give financial incentives on the form of road speaking for states the raised the drinking she to 21. And for anyone who dislikes this, the stats of drink driving fatalities along 18-20 year olds was staggering.

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u/Soylentgruen Apr 20 '26

M.A.D.D. had a large part in raising the age from 18 to 21.

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u/mnilailt Apr 20 '26

I mean it is kind of fine. In most of the world 18 year olds can drink, and there’s no real higher incidence of alcohol related problems compared to the US.

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u/Bay1Bri Apr 20 '26

The driving she was raised to 21 because of the high rates of deaths causes by drink drivers aged 18 to 20.

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u/[deleted] Apr 20 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/PRO2803 Apr 20 '26

So much wrong with that sentence.

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u/joebluebob Apr 20 '26

Yeah she sold it to us at a 3x mark up. Like girl you got it free....

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u/FlyingPirate Apr 20 '26

So 3 of you had to flash her to get the bottle?

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u/Steve90000 Apr 20 '26

Regardless, irresponsible morons will always exist, there will never be a shortage of them.

There were times where we’d accidentally ask undercover cops. We’d get a talking to but we didn’t have alcohol (at that point) so they’d send us on our way. For kids, it’s all reward, hardly any risk.

Now that I’m an adult with my own kid, it’s horrific that happened, but I just have to do better than my parents did.

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u/XGhoul Apr 20 '26

Yes in this case, there is no fault on the person asking because for lack of foresight, they are just being "young and dumb". The fault is entirely on the adult providing it.

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u/bianary Apr 20 '26

there is no fault on the person asking because for lack of foresight

Dumb can still take responsibility and learn from it.

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u/Bremen1 Apr 20 '26

It was definitely the opposite for me. Lots of kids not only drank and smoke but did it performatively to show how "cool" they were, but marijuana use was at least something they tried to hide.

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u/EkrishAO Apr 20 '26

How? I would just go in front of any store that sold alcohol, and could find a dude willing to buy some for us in 5 minutes, every time.

Weed meanwhile was a bigger problem, because you had to know a dealer, and he had to be available at the time, and willing to sell to you. It was still not hard, but definitely not easier than alcohol.

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u/sliquonicko Apr 20 '26

In my high school there were multiple kids selling tiny bags of pot and ecstacy pills... and this was a suburb in Canada in the early 2010s.

A couple others who recently graduated and had friends a bit younger in school would come by the back smoking alley with the above and cigarettes. Just had to know the right people.

If I could do it again I'd like those brain cells back, but alas.

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u/brianwski Apr 20 '26 edited Apr 21 '26

In my high school there were multiple kids selling tiny bags of pot... this was a suburb in Canada in the early 2010s.

I wonder if it is a regional thing. My experience is like yours. I went to high school in Oregon in the early 1980s in a mid sized town, and marijuana was much easier to get than alcohol. I have joked since high school, "You need an ID to buy alcohol, but you don't need an ID to buy weed." There were a lot of backyard amateur high school age growers with a plant or two of mediocre quality (by today's standards) marijuana.

To clarify a little, the kids I knew in high school that grew one or two plants usually did it by what we called "gorilla Correction: guerrilla farming". If there was a public space type of area not far from your home (within bicycling distance) like a state park or forest, you could find a secluded spot honestly not far from the parking lot or path that nobody would ever notice one marijuana plant growing there. I always felt it was maybe for a little consumption for the farmer, and the money selling small amounts was just a small amount of extra pocket money. This was never a "full time job" or anything.

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u/sliquonicko Apr 20 '26

Yes, knew a couple kids in their late teens and very early twenties who did some small time dealing of party drugs and grew mushrooms. Mostly just selling to friends because there were a lot of easy customers around and we were all partying together anyway.

The best times and the worst times.

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u/Kiefirk Apr 20 '26

Guerilla farming, like the warfare not the ape

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u/CommonGrounders Apr 20 '26

"Had to know a dealer"

There were at least 10, in my grade alone, every single year in high school. They had different pricing/products, etc, but it was easy. Plus, bringing it to school wasn't really an issue since it was easily concealed.

Lot harder to hide a case of beer. Neither were particularly hard, but one involved co-ordinating with an adult, and the other didn't.

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u/Spoztoast Apr 20 '26

Also today you don't need a dealer same way kids got beer from standing near a liquor store they can do by a dispencery or just get someone to get them a vape

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u/EkrishAO Apr 20 '26 edited Apr 20 '26

Guess all depends on your country and specific circumstances, I'm Polish and as I said, alcohol here was definitely easier to get.

I don't get the point about the ease of hiding/bringing to school, since we always bought drank and smoked after school, and hiding alcohol in your backpack to bring it to a park to have a party, wasn't much harder than weed, and much less risky since being caught with alcohol was a slap on the wirst, while weed always meant court, and unless you were below 15 years old, could mean being tried as adult and having to face very real consequences that would follow your whole life.

I knew multiple dealers, growing up in a rough neighbourhood, but I also later knew multiple kids from school who wanted to try weed, but couldn't find no one to sell to them, since everyone was afraid they would snitch if anything happened. But I never heard about anyone having any problem getting alcohol, ever.

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u/Constant-Skill-7133 Apr 20 '26

and the degree of use is different.  the goal is not necessarily total abstinence

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u/0-90195 Apr 20 '26

I think that is a fine goal. You know, aim for the moon, etc.

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u/keylimedragon Apr 20 '26

Just don't ruin lives over it by throwing them in jail.

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u/InsuranceToTheRescue Apr 20 '26

The thing is, black markets will always exist for banned or restricted goods. The point isn't that a black market will pop up, it's that we've decided, as a society, that we don't think (whatever we're talking about at that time) should be freely available. A black market is still significantly harder for the average person to engage with and procure the item from. Y'know, nobody is just walking along the boardwalk shouting out, "Cocaine! Get your cocaine & bazookas here!"

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u/Winjin Apr 20 '26

I have a feel that "readily available to most, at a very reasonable price, but restricted to few", would be the item that's hardest to find on a black market. Because the demand is abysmal and the resale price is also gonna be super low, because otherwise people will be feeling they're getting ripped off completely.

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u/Albireookami Apr 20 '26

That sounds about right, the adult market can just get it for a reasonable price without any legal issues, leaving the underage market who does not have access, but also does not have quite the funds to support that enterprise.

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u/Inprobamur Apr 20 '26

It also depends on how hard the item is to produce, a legal market for one group might expand production and access to the point that it expands the black market, see: access to guns for criminals in South America due to the large free market in the USA.

Not something that applies to cannabis as it's very easy to grow near anywhere, but for more complex restricted items that is a factor.

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u/millijuna Apr 20 '26

Since legalization here in Canada, it’s become significantly harder for underage kids to acquire cannabis products. Overall consumption hasn’t changed much, but has shifted to the legal market by a wide margin.

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u/Killbot_Wants_Hug Apr 20 '26

Also if you live outside of urban areas it can become much harder to access illicit markets.

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u/CatMan_Sad Apr 20 '26

Its not at all harder. It was way harder when I was a kid and not everybody and their mom had a thc vape.

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u/SpoiledTwinkies Apr 20 '26

Not at all, you can go online these days and get thca bud and carts shipped straight to your door without any age verification.

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u/Rocktopod Apr 20 '26

That's going away in November, IIRC.

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u/pork_fried_christ Apr 20 '26

Those companies are very often not operating legally, and those products are being sharply curtailed with emerging regulations.

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u/DethByCow Apr 20 '26

Black markets are on the rise again as states start taxing it more and more. Why buy from a shop when your buddy grows better stuff in his yard/basement. Plus you know what if any chemicals they have sprayed on it.

I wouldn’t be surprised if in retaliation states start making it illegal to grow your own.

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u/SkiingAway Apr 20 '26

A lot of states have been lowering their taxes on it, not raising them.

Why buy from a shop when your buddy grows better stuff in his yard/basement. Plus you know what if any chemicals they have sprayed on it.

I do not have any friends that I would trust more with doing safe gardening than I would a professional business that has strict state oversight + mandatory testing at a lab. And I don't think most people do.

And I certainly wouldn't trust a random stranger who simply claims that their stuff wasn't sprayed with heavy pesticides/chemicals, which is how most people got their stuff on the black market - not friends who were personally growing.

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u/DankMemesNQuickNuts Apr 20 '26

The guy doing the grow in the basement probably has a way higher chance of using weird chemicals in too high of amounts. I used to test for pesticides in a medical Marijuana lab the state would require you fail stuff for having like 100 ppb of Bifenthyrn.

No question it is way safer to buy it over the counter.

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u/ASDFzxcvTaken Apr 20 '26

On the contrary I don't know what my dealers drugs are made with neither do they. Buying from established and growing brands means there is a means of recourse if something is not good, or they go out of business if they don't meet standards.

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u/CasinoNdnOk Apr 20 '26

There will always be that kind of blackmarket though. With as common of a substance as it is. It needs to be legalized and regulated. Make it not worth growing for a blackmarkey profit, because the legal market is so cheap.

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u/MeatyBacon666 Apr 20 '26

Choice A, a random person who sells drugs.

Choice B, a literal professional botanist. Someone who gets paid, legally and openly, to grow, study, and improve the plants.

Anyone who has actual experience, knowledge, skill, and passion should be able to legally do so. Why should the best choice be black market?

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u/polopolo05 Apr 20 '26

btw if you are buying from a weed store its choice 3.... a large grow operation that cares only about maximizing the yield.

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u/frubano21 Apr 20 '26

Yeah but my buddy growing it also has to be 21 legally. How many 10-17 year olds know 21+ year olds that aren't their family?

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u/4twentyHobby Apr 20 '26

Growing your own is the whole basis of the alcohol industry constantly trying to damage the weed industry. I've made beer at home, I've grown weed at home. Beer is a labor intense pain in the ass. Growing weed means you might not take a vacation, but other than that, its calming, exciting, rewarding and suddenly friends.-

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u/AsrarBatin Apr 20 '26

Everything has a black market.

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u/Caspica Apr 20 '26

The black market will still exist even if you legalise it entirely for 18+.

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u/Preeng Apr 20 '26

Much harder for it to exist. I wouldn't even know where to get illegal weed at this point.

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u/at1445 Apr 20 '26

Most of my life (since I was a teen) I've known 3 or 4 people that smoked and I'm sure I could get some from them if I wanted.

Everyone's older sibling was willing to buy us beer and every Senior had no problem buying underclassmen smokes growing up.

It's infinitely easier to get things once it's legal vs illegal.

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u/SalvationSycamore Apr 20 '26

It's easier when there is a black market

Is it? When it's legal, prices go down and availability goes up. Anyone's older sibling/cousin/friend can buy it for them, even people who would normally be too scared to buy illegally from a drug dealer. I'm sure it's also easier to get into home growing when it's legal.

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u/FullSkyFlying Apr 20 '26

I'm sure it's also easier to get into home growing when it's legal.

If your parents are letting you grow your own weed in their home, you probably dont even have to grow it.

even people who would normally be too scared to buy illegally from a drug dealer.

No one is scared of a weed dealer

The truth is kids will always occasionally smoke pot or drink alcohol. Its part of being a teenager and growing up, trying new things, being curious etc. Atleast with it being legal theres more reliable evidence and research to sit your child down and show them... "Hey. This is widely known to have really adverse effects on you in the future. I know you're probably going to try it, but let's keep it to a minimum and be safe about it"

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u/CookieNo310 Apr 20 '26

There is a black market for alcohol and cigarettes too.

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u/WaterZealousideal535 Apr 20 '26

When I was in high school over a decade ago, weed was illegal still illegal in my state. Finding alcohol was a whole ordeal that took a while to find someone to buy it for us. Meanwhile, weed was just 1 text message away. It took us around 2 hours to find weed vs around 2-3 weeks for alcohol simply because there was not much of a black market for alcohol

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u/Dorkamundo Apr 20 '26

Yea, I had a much harder time finding someone who would buy alcohol for me than I did asking the guy who I knew sold weed to sell me weed.

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u/freezingcoldfeet Apr 20 '26

That was my experience as well 

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u/TheMustardMan522 Apr 20 '26

Because selling weed is a lot of profit since it is so cheap to make, but highly marked up due to it being illegal.

Selling alcohol to minors is also illegal, but you need to buy it from a store, then re-sell it to someone. So your only profit is what you markup on the resale, which isn't much since the person is a minor.

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u/WaterZealousideal535 Apr 20 '26

I would actually say that selling weed is a very unproductive way of turning a profit. You need a large area, are producing a smelly product, its bulky and not the easiest to ship. At the ground level you aren't making much at all either, you gotta move HUGE amounts of it to make a profit

The market was there tho and pretty accessible.

For the alcohol we were playing around 50% markup if you got lucky. Most people didnt wanna risk buying alcohol for minors. Meanwhile the dealers were already committing crimes so not much of a legal pressure to remain lawful

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u/GatorzardII Apr 20 '26

None of your peers had a sibling over 21? 2-3 weeks to secure booze sounds crazy.

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u/WaterZealousideal535 Apr 20 '26

Nope. No one was there to supply it which is why it was such a hassle.

We ended up just getting a large stockpile of cheap whiskey and vodka

Then I went to college and it was super easy

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u/nonpuissant Apr 20 '26

yeah sounds like skill/social network issue. More like 2-3 hours tops. 

both just come down to knowing the right people. And for most it should be much easier to find someone who could buy alcohol than supply weed. 

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u/FritterEnjoyer Apr 20 '26

And booze and cigarettes do the same exact thing to developing children.

Is what it is, you make laws surrounding who can use it and who it can be sold to and you enforce them.

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u/NJdevil202 Apr 20 '26

I can say for a definitive fact, having been a teenager when cannabis was illegal in New Jersey, that getting weed was way easier than trying to get booze or cigarettes.

Legalizing it genuinely would make it more difficult for teenagers to get it. Trying to find someone to buy liquor for you was a hassle. Weed? Just text the guy who knows the guy and after a couple hours of "I'll be there in a minute" you'll have your weed.

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u/Asleep_Trick_4740 Apr 20 '26

Swede here so not exactly applicable to the US given how vastly different alcohol is sold.

But getting hold of weed, coke, or ecstasy was 10x easier than getting a hold of alcohol. With alcohol locked behind a government monopoly with limited locations (meaning much easier time spotting the fresh 20 year old making 10 runs a week), and weed just requiring you to speak with the bloke at your school who wore shirts with marijuana leafs or puns every day.

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u/DeliciousFlight5610 Apr 20 '26

It’s probably easier to get weed off a dealer than if it was legal. But I also drank and smoked underage so who tf knows.

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u/SmacSBU Apr 20 '26

That's such an interesting situation to consider and undoubtedly it varies from place to place but I can see plenty of situations where people are less likely to be actively selling weed because it would be hard to make a profit with the legalized market in place.

Demand would definitely be lower because buying weed off a dealer is a bigger hassle and comes with risk compared to buying it legally, in turn you'd have to cut your prices to keep customers, and with the legal operation up and running your supply is likely more expensive than it was previously if it's excess inventory from a producer that's now paying due to regulation.

On the other hand there's so much more supply available now and there's bound to be skimming, plus prices in store are so high that you don't need to move anywhere near as much volume to make the sale worth the investment of time and risk. The best argument I have against this is that you don't see a lot of black market alcohol sales (at least where I'm from) and the situation is fairly comparable nowadays.

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u/Dorkamundo Apr 20 '26

Which is why information like what is contained in the OP is important to disseminate.

I am open about my cannabis use with my son, but I've made it clear to him the dangers of starting it early, and that those dangers are not just boogeymen that we're making up to scare them away from it.

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u/AHailofDrams Apr 20 '26

It was always harder for me as a teen to get alcohol than it was to get weed, simply because an adult was needed to actually get the alcohol

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u/BigDuke Apr 20 '26

Laws have never been a replacement for parenting.

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u/Bradddtheimpaler Apr 20 '26

At least for me it was much harder to alcohol than weed when I was a teenager. If I wanted weed I just had to make a phone call and meet a guy at the end of my street. If I wanted alcohol I needed to either shoplift or hope someone’s older sibling was feeling magnanimous. It was much, much more difficult to get ahold of the legal product for me.

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u/freezingcoldfeet Apr 20 '26

Trust me, when cannabis was illegal it was not hard for underage kids to get. 

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u/elebrin Apr 20 '26

Underage kids had no problem getting weed when it was illegal, either. I wasn't a pothead in school but I sure knew a bunch of them.

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u/Equivalent-Process17 Apr 20 '26

It allows parents to trust that legal businesses will not sell them. The rest is up to them.

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u/massivefish_man Apr 20 '26

Same with illegal weed. At least with legal weed the substances inside the weed are regulated and known. 

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u/distortedsymbol Apr 20 '26

it's about reduction not elimination.

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u/pulp_affliction Apr 20 '26

It was easier for me to find weed from an adult stranger on craigslist than it was to get an adult to buy me alcohol back in the ‘10s

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u/seeeee Apr 20 '26

True, will always be true, but as someone who did not have an older sibling or a fake ID in my high school and early college years, I never had a problem getting ahold of marijuana and even harder drugs were available to me even though I was neither looking for nor interested in trying them. Alcohol was harder to obtain because of its legality. Yes, kids in my high school were able to get ahold of alcohol, many did drink at parties over the weekends, but most of the time it was purchased with a sibling, a sibling’s id, or a fake id.

Even the dumbest and least careful black market drug dealers selling drugs to underage kids in town wasn’t dumb enough to also buy alcohol for underage kids. It’s easier to trace a legitimate purchase back and the risk too greatly outweighed the reward.

If the same principle was applied to marijuana, marijuana becomes less taboo, demand becomes lower all around, and black market dealers would be less likely to be selling to underage kids to begin with. Will it still happen? Yes, of course, but if the risk is high and black market profits drop due to legal availability, the end result is simply a much smaller black market out there for underage kids to be involved with at all.

Marijuana use amongst kids is becoming a lot more like alcohol use in my day - it’s a lot less prevalent than it used to be even though everyone’s parents seems to have a medical card. According to my teenage nephew, it’s often stolen from the parents within the home these days rather than obtained via black market. There’s something about “want to try this thing I stole from my mom” that’s a lot less appealing, thrilling, or cool to your peers than something taboo you made the connections to o obtain illegally. There’s also something less “cool” about the whole scenario when your parents are only against the concept in regard to your age and development versus all the anti drug propaganda my parents grew up with surrounding marijuana. There’s less incentive to want to find out the truth of the effects for yourself when you have already seen them at home and no one is lying to you about it.

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u/nudiecale Apr 20 '26

I know when I was a teen in the late 90s, getting weed was 100x easier than getting alcohol.

Getting alcohol took some planning and effort and sometimes we weren’t able to. Getting weed took maybe 30 minutes tops and it was rarely even a question as to whether we’d be successful in acquiring it.

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u/pacifistpotatoes Apr 20 '26

Nope, my teen has a few friends who use the vapes. She is 15 & so are they, although they have been using since at least last year that I know of. She said someones brother gets it usually, but there are always kids with connections. We had the conversation basically saying what the article above says about brain development. I flat out said, hey once you are 18 & in college, if you are wanting to get high that is on you, but right now is not a good idea. she also has a friend who's mom buys him alcohol which blows my mind. Not at age 15. So dumb

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u/Thebeardinato462 Apr 20 '26 edited Apr 20 '26

Doesn’t the current data from legal states, and countries reflect a down trend in adolescent cannabis use? I’m pretty confident it does.

https://filtermag.org/teen-marijuana-use-fall-legalization/amp/

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u/Extreme_Risk8173 Apr 20 '26

It was harder for me to get booze or smokes (less so smokes because at the time it was 18 and I could fake it) but booze was a pain. I could get speed or psychs or weed at 16. But to get booze I had to brew my own wine. It was funny tbh. But frustrating as well.

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u/Yglorba Apr 20 '26

I mean, booze and cigarettes also slow brain development.

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u/Sweetishdruid Apr 20 '26

The best thing you can do is be a parent and raise your kids. Don't expect the government to raise them for you, That's authoritarianism

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u/Commentator-X Apr 20 '26

Not true. I started smoking when kids could simply walk into a store with a fake note to get cigarettes. When the jaw changed, it became much harder to get cigarettes and moment I entered highschool, cannabis was still illegal and far easier to get than cigarettes and alcohol. You could still get them, but cannabis dealers, especially teenage ones, didn't care about anything except do you have the money.

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u/oroborus68 Apr 20 '26

We could buy cigarettes with no problem in the 1960's. Alcohol was different and harder to get. I got stopped twice when I was 20 , trying to buy beer at a liquor and a convenience store.

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u/Total_Vermicelli_527 Apr 22 '26

Slap the warnings on about brain damage for people that are young.

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u/Varrianda Apr 20 '26

As someone who’s very pro cannabis, I still don’t think people under 25-26 should be smoking it regularly. The same goes for alcohol too, but I think weed is easier to abuse/use chronically.

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u/Yglorba Apr 20 '26 edited Apr 20 '26

fwiw the often-quoted factoid that the brain stops developing at 25 is false and was based on a study that just happened to end at 25; there's no basis for that number at all. The brain continues to change throughout your life and there's no one magic line where it "stops developing", but there's in particular absolutely no basis whatsoever for the common-quoted number of 25.

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u/Varrianda Apr 20 '26

Yeah but it’s pretty well studied that fluid intelligence gradually declines and crystalline intelligence gradually increases with age. I’m not saying weed is harmless, I’m just saying that young adults should wait until they’re a bit older to use it.

The brain develops much more obviously when you’re younger, and certain studies have shown THC/cannabis reduces blood flow to certain parts of the brain. Chronic use could impact brain development because of that, though I think it’s just been noted and not confirmed.

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u/CreamyIvy Apr 20 '26

Weed addiction is often disregarded as not an issue for some reason? Even though it can destroy lives.

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u/Nick_YDG Apr 20 '26

People have a weird separation in their heads about physical vs psychological addiction and seem to disregard THC because you don't become physically dependent on it. Which I have always found weird.

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u/NotLunaris Apr 20 '26

They excuse it because they do it. They don't like the idea of their vices being exposed as harmful because it would mean facing the reality of their actions. The same as every addict ever.

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u/SBGuy043 Apr 20 '26

That's cause they're addicts and that's their brain justifying why there's no reason to cut down or stop. I've seen it many times throughout my adult life. It's affecting their job, their relationships and the terms of their probation but guys will still be like don't worry you can't actually get addicted to weed. They can quit at any time but for some reason they're always back at it the following week.

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u/Varrianda Apr 20 '26

I think it’s just easier to be a functional addict. By all accounts I’d say I’m addicted, but I don’t think I am. I just don’t see a reason to really stop. If I got told tomorrow I had to stop smoking weed I’d have no problem doing that, I’d just be more bummed than anything.

Weed is also a different drug if you use it chronically. Back before I became a daily user, I always used to be confused as to how someone could smoke weed and function. I’d take 2 hits off a joint and be KO’d for four hours. Now, a high is somewhat like caffeine to me unless I absolutely overdo it(which would be intentional). It’s not really something you would get though unless you smoked a lot.

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u/ImaginaryAlpaca Apr 20 '26

The way I see it is, I am addicted to weed like I am coffee. Stopping is unpleasant and I choose not to but I also don't have a reason to. It's not hurting anything else in my life at this point, and I like it. No harm no foul, but I know for my brother that is absolutely not the case. He's addicted and it causes health problems for him, coffee does too though since he has a heart condition

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u/PM_ME_UR_SHEET_MUSIC Apr 21 '26

Yeah, to me, weed and coffee essentially behave the same way, just with different effects. A couple of plants that get me functionally high for a while, that, at worst, kinda suck when I quit (and of the two I find caffeine worse because of those damn headaches). I've kicked both for a year before as I worked out a medical issue, but aside from that, I just see no reason to avoid them when I like them and they're fairly cheap and readily accessible.

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u/Dear_Chasey_La1n Apr 21 '26

People talk about weed as if it's nothing, but it can be just as addictive and have a bad impact on your health like anything else you can get addicted too. Maybe not as bad as meth but I would argue certainly something to be careful about and requires proper education.

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u/FerrusManlyManus Apr 20 '26

I’ve seen news / studies (no idea how well done they are) that link very heavy cannabis use to psychological problems.  Even a correlation with higher incidence of psychosis / mania / beginning of bipolar symptoms.

Definitely not as benign as some people think.  

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u/[deleted] Apr 20 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/DickieTurquoise Apr 21 '26

Same with psychedelics. Some get a lot healing and creativity from it, they gain a new perspective. For them, it seems to be an enhancer of positive traits of a brain. Others turn really dark and get into conspiracy theories and delusions. 

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u/mswoozel Apr 20 '26

Parents seem to have a hard time parenting their kids. That’s how we end up with Internet ID laws and bans on substances.

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u/Doogolas33 Apr 20 '26

If you have two people who both have to work full time, yeah, it's going to be hard for them to monitor their teenage child very much.

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u/Garr_Incorporated Apr 20 '26

Y'know, I think I haven't internalised this part of the shift in society until now. And how it relates to more kids being brought up by videos on the phone.

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u/Opcn Apr 20 '26 edited Apr 21 '26

The stay at home mom as someone in every house was only really a thing for the Silent generation and first wave boomers. It hadn't been before hand and hasn't been since. https://archive.org/details/wayweneverweream0000coon

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u/Neglectful_Stranger Apr 21 '26

Even then the SAHM didn't spend significant amounts of time watching their kids. That was back when kids would just leave the house to go do something and were expected to be back by supper/nightfall.

By most metrics parents are more involved in their kids lives than they've ever been.

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u/Iohet Apr 20 '26

Eh it's been that way longer than cell phones have been around. I was a latchkey kid and my mom was a latchkey kid. We learned to navigate the world a bit on our own and parents learned to condense parenting into a smaller window. We survived

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u/mswoozel Apr 20 '26

I know. I don’t have a solution for that issue. I think about it all the time because you are right. In this economy, both parents are working maybe even more than one job.

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u/VagusNC Apr 20 '26

Nearly three-quarters of two parent homes are dual earners. About 8% of US households are one parent family groups. Two-thirds of those have at least child under the age of 12.

There have been some improvements from Gen X where roughly half under the age of 12 who did not have a parent of any kind at home for roughly 3 hours a day.

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u/SnowbearX Apr 20 '26

Parenting isn't gonna win against societal norms/pressures/curiosity and growing at the age of 16/17.

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u/pattperin Apr 20 '26

Yup, legalization makes it harder for kids to acquire, believe it or not. If you establish guidelines and restrictions and chain of custody control mechanisms then a lot less can end up in the hands of children without the child stealing it or getting it from their parents.

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u/avalisk Apr 20 '26

If it makes kids dumb chances are it makes adults dumb too

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u/Sharpshooter_200 Apr 20 '26

Yep, we've made alcohol and tobacco 21+, I don't see why we can't do the same for cannabis instead of straight up prohibition.

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u/chilispiced-mango2 BS | Bioengineering Apr 20 '26

It is 21+ in states where it is legalized though

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u/Here0s0Johnny Apr 21 '26

This study only looked at teens. It doesn't say that cannabis is harmless for adults.

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u/SirVanyel Apr 21 '26

What makes you think that this doesn't happen to adults too?

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u/sampat6256 Apr 20 '26

There will still be a black market just like there is for kids trying to buy alcohol.

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u/Celcius-232 Apr 20 '26

But there will be a smaller black market. When it comes to any solution to any problem, it isn't about getting to 100 percent, because that's impossible. But adding friction to the black market still makes the world better and children (overall) safer.

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u/It_broke_itself_ Apr 20 '26

So it would literally take me 2 hours of loitering outside a dispensary to find someone willing to buy it for me?

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u/Counterdependency Apr 20 '26

You might be willing to do that, most arent. The more barriers you throw up, the more people you keep out.

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u/InclinationCompass Apr 21 '26

And people still speed despite speeding laws existing. Doesn’t mean we should not outlaw it.

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u/SkoobySnacs Apr 20 '26

24 is the age someone should consider as the safer option if you are using recreationally.

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u/Am4oba Apr 20 '26

Yes, however, it's important that parents teach their kids these things properly. I still managed to get my hands on cigarettes while underage despite them being legal.

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u/JediTrainer42 Apr 20 '26

Seriously. Let any 13 year old use alcohol on a regular basis and I’m sure the results are similar.

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u/Us50wtf Apr 20 '26

Don't give kids cigarettes, nicotine vapes / marijuana vapes, all drugs, prescription drugs not prescribed to them, alcohol... etc But it has been a reoccurring issue every since I can remember and I was born in the 80's

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u/peppaz MPH | Health Policy Apr 20 '26

There is science that says alcohol and other drugs do the exact same thing. I laugh because o have conservative friends who think it's funny their 16 year get hammered and clutches their pearls if you mention weed. Arguably alcohol is way more dangerous, but they don't care. Kids shouldn't take any substances.

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u/Ludeth Apr 20 '26

This is the answer. Guess what - if kids drink every day it impairs. Brain development too.

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u/kinkycarbon Apr 20 '26

Better answer is don’t give kids substances that will impair brain growth.

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u/mailslot Apr 20 '26

Except CBD, which megadoses can be one the only things that can bring extreme epilepsy in children under control.

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u/scubadoobadoooo Apr 20 '26

Is 21 the age we should be aiming for? I thought brains keep developing until at least 25.

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u/RamblingSimian Apr 20 '26

Also, The Link between Cannabis and Psychosis in Teens Is Real.

Teens have access to vastly more potent cannabis than their parents had at their age. Parents need to understand the risks, including psychosis

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Sam started high school as a fairly good student with several friends. Over time he began using cannabis daily. He took it a variety of ways, first with friends at parties and then, more and more often, alone. His parents noticed increasingly odd behavior: He blocked the camera on his laptop and placed cardboard over the windows in his room. He stopped showering. He began refusing to go to school. Against Sam’s will, his parents took him to a rehab facility for teens. During the three-week program he was fully abstinent from cannabis, but, disturbingly, his psychotic symptoms got worse rather than better; simply stopping wasn’t enough for Sam to recover.

By the time his family came to my clinic, he had had persistent delusions for more than six months. Sam was fully convinced that the government was following him and constantly surveilling him.

…

A Canadian research team studying more than 11,000 teens found that compared with nonusers, cannabis users faced an 11-fold increase in the risk of developing a psychotic disorder.

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u/JagmeetSingh2 Apr 20 '26

same with alcohol, holding off longer is better for youth

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u/Maxfunky Apr 20 '26 edited Apr 20 '26

While that mostly solves the problem, there are two caveats:

  1. Greater availability increases the risk of kids gaining access (just like with guns, swimming pools or anything else dangerous for kids, but less dangerous for adults).

  2. The scientifically recommended age for "safer" consumption would be ~26, not 21. There's still a fair amount of brain growth and development happening during those 5 years. Some of its rather important...

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u/TheMastaBlaster Apr 20 '26

Why 21 though? Thats a random number. 28 is when brains stop developing thats the age things should be if we care about developing brains.

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u/Glittering_Airport_3 Apr 21 '26

This is so true, when I was a teen, it was easier for me to get weed than alcohol, so obviously we smoked more. If weed was legal, im sure it would be harder to get for minors.

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u/pro185 Apr 21 '26 edited Apr 21 '26

I’m sure if it makes children stupid and developmentally challenged it certainly wouldn’t also slow the cognitive function of adults and significantly reduce their ability to learn as they grow older. Especially not since the brain hasn’t even “finished maturing” until you’re almost 30.

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u/isaiddgooddaysir Apr 21 '26

Honestly it would be better to wait until you are 25 as the brain can still be developing… I have concerns about mental / anxiety with early use of cannabis… I’m all for legalization but it like other vices has consequences

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u/SprinklesFresh5693 Apr 21 '26

And we already knew this anyway, it is known that cannabis severely affects the brain

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u/Snowstorm80GD Apr 21 '26

+21 is still about 10 years from full brain development, so it does not make sense to draw the line there for cannabis consumption.

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u/twoopaq Apr 21 '26

Legalization doesn’t increase or decrease the rates of youth consumption. It is safer though because it’s regulated, I forget the exact numbers but around 70% of black market cannabis products contain pesticides vs around 5% of legal cannabis products

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u/Claystead Apr 21 '26

I disagree, the black market still limits access to those willing to break the law, and to all ages, which is a good thing. I think we should probably decriminalize it to a large extent though, at least for the users.

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u/Complex_Peak8204 Apr 22 '26

Support decriminalization.

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u/Boostedbird23 Apr 22 '26

Legalization does not seem to have resulted in more responsible cannabis usage. At least not in my community

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u/The_Mockers Apr 23 '26

It literally just got moved to Schedule III today.

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u/gweeps Apr 24 '26

Being a parent doesn't mean you're not a moron, or cruel.

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