Children whose mothers use marijuana try it earlier

Boston, MA – According to a new Harvard T.H. study, children whose mothers use marijuana are more likely to start using marijuana on average two years earlier than children whose mothers do not use the drug. Chan School of Public Health.

The study will be published on 24 September 2018 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

"Marijuana use at a young age has been associated with negative cognitive and behavioral consequences," said Natasha Sokol, who led the study while she was a PhD student at Harvard Chan School and is currently postdoctoral fellow at Brown University School of Public Health Center. for studies on alcoholism and drug addiction. "In a changing regulatory environment in the United States where the visibility and acceptability of marijuana use among adults is expected to increase, it is important to better understand how these changes may impact early marijuana use. effective prevention strategies. "

According to the authors of the study, the ban on marijuana is not necessarily consistent with public health goals. For example, marijuana has proven therapeutic benefits for a number of health problems and may be a safer alternative to opioids. In addition, more than half of the arrests of narcotics in the United States are related to marijuana and are a major contributor to racial disparities in arrest and incarceration.

But among children who start using at a young age, marijuana has been associated with negative consequences such as impaired concentration and decision-making, increased impulsiveness, and IQ reductions. The younger children are when they begin to use marijuana, the more serious the effects, suggests the studies. Therefore, delaying marijuana initiation could be an important public health goal, said the authors.

With the help of data from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and children and young adults, the new study assessed the timing and extent of drinking and eating. initiation of marijuana in 4,440 children and 2,586 mothers. The researchers evaluated the effect of marijuana use by the mother between birth and age of 12 on the subsequent risk of initiation into marijuana, taking into account behavioral factors and to the cognition of the child and his socioeconomic and social situation.

The study found that 2,983 children (67.2%) and 1,053 mothers (35.3%) identified themselves as marijuana users. Children whose mothers used marijuana were at increased risk of starting marijuana use before the age of 17 and started using a median age of 16, compared to 18 years for mothers. The association was slightly stronger in non-Hispanic non-black children.

One of the limitations of the study was that it did not measure whether children were aware of marijuana use by their mothers. The study also lacked data on the frequency and severity of marijuana use by mothers.

"While further research is needed, doctors who prescribe marijuana might consider educating parents who use the drug about the potential dangers of early marijuana use in their children and provide information and preventive strategies for delay that use, "said Vaughan Rees and Behavioral Sciences and director of the Harvard Chan School's Center for Global Tobacco Control.