Marijuana.com

CardBoardBox

My 10 year old neice told me she smokes pot, and has since she was 7.
I've talked to some of her friends, and the oldest (12) says he's been smoking pot since he was 5.

WHAT THE HELL? I didn't even know what pot was until I was 11... Let alone try it until I was 13.

I want to possibly do a voluenteer course at the school and teach the kids that they shoulden't be lighting up in grade three... What kind of information can I give them? Ug... I feel sick just thinking about this. =/

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nacrypt

In an environment of prohibition this is not a good thing. One thing about smoking a lot of weed is that it seems normal to you but when you run into somebody that is against it or will even bust you, it is kind of a shock.

Fortunately, pot is a mostly harmless substance, it will not cause physiological damage like alcohol or tobacco. Personally, I don't believe that pot inhibits a person from succeeding in school but it may make it more difficult. I know from my own personal experience that things are just a lot clearer when you are sober and have been since you woke up.

fight4rights

That's really scary. I didn't even know people who smoked pot until 8th grade.

The younger you are when you start using a drug, the more likely you are to become addicted to it/abuse it.

There is a difference between a grown adult who smokes marijuana and someone who isn't even close to fully grown, physically or mentally. It is possible that by smoking marijuana while growing up you are in fact harming your body.

Scientists found out recently that as late as 25 years old parts of your brain are still developing.

Are you talking to your niece and trying to get her to stop? I dare say that I would go to the parents if she refused to stop in a case like this.

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"Those who do no harm to others should not be harmed by others..." Ethan Nadelmann
"Revolution is not a right, it is an obligation." John Locke
"Do SOMETHING besides argue emotions against the law, because it simply isn't a rational way to affect any type of change whatsoever. No offense intended, but your opinion on things is a moot point unless you take actions to change the law, rather than ramble about how unfair or injust it is." troublemaker_42
"'Just say no' to drugs, except those marketed by big pharmaceutical companies." Ignorant Politicians

troublemaker_42

People who provide/sell pot, to people that young need to be taken out in the street and shot, IMO. Childhood should be a time of innocence, not a time to be blazed out of your gourd watching Seasame Street, or attempting to learn fracctions or your multiplecation tables. theres plenty of time for that later in life. What kind of scum sells weed to a 7 yr old, or what kind of irresponisble parent leaves their stash where their kids can take it?

nacrypt

I do NOT want people this young to be on drugs but I HIGHLY doubt this claim. The chemicals in marijuana work like they do because they are very chemically similar to neurotransmitters. Once in the body they are metabolized in a daily cycle just like any other natural neurotransmitters. Alcohol is clearly different than this, while marijuana alters the messages that are sent between neurons, alcohol is an anesthetic that changes how the brain cells use oxygen.

Marijuana has NOT been linked to respretory problems and cancers, like tobacco clearly has (440,000 deaths/year in US). In fact, marijuana is very much non-toxic.

While it is socially unacceptable for children this young to be getting high. If it is not physiologically damaging for adults to use marijuana then it won't be physiologically damaging for children either. The body does not chemically change that much.

Also, with regards to the brain developing, the brain is constantly producing new neuron during a persons entire life. What happens during childhood is that specific pathways that connect the neurons are defined and imprinted (much like developing a photograph). The imprinted pathways define thought patterns and are very difficult to change once they are created and well used. This is why is it easier for a child to learn a new language than an adult.

 

BartSimpson

Children playing with matches, what could possibly go wrong?

no_problems

This is EXACTLY why pot CAN harm a child... It causes neural pathways to be constructed that otherwise wouldn't be. That is the means for psychological addiction to occur (which we all know is the only form of addiction to pot that normally occurs).

Technically, neural pathways are developing throughout life -- that's the process of learning. But when those pathways are most actively developing is a dangerous time to be experimenting with mind-altering substances, no matter what those substances are.

Buzzby

Probably the same kind that doesn't put a padlock on their liquor cabinet. My Mom and Dad's was never locked and none of the kids in my family became boozers at the age of five. I didn't know anyone whose parents locked up the liquor supply.

My question is why kids of that age would even be interested in drugs?

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nacrypt

Correct! This is the most compelling argument of why children should not use marijuana or other drugs. Remember, though, this is a social argument not a physiological one.

fight4rights

I think there is more of a possibility of complications than you are letting on Nacrypt.

Marijuana works by flooding your system with THC, many more cannabinoids than your body would normally produce. As with heroine, cocaine, and ecstasy (all of which act on normal neurotransmitters within the brain,) if you continually flood your body with more neurotransmitters than it can handle, it will build more receptors of that neurotransmitters so it can maintain homeostasis. The same happens with marijuana, that's why people develop a tolerance to it, albiet one much less intense than that of what opiate users experience.

So, if a child habitually smokes marijuana, they will change the way their endocannabinoid system from a normal state to a state in which they have many more cannabinoid receptors. Will this affect their normal development? Who's to say it won't? Until many expirements have confirmed that children who smoke marijuana aren't at all different from kids who don't, there is no reason to HIGHLY doubt that claim.

I don't think it would be unreasonable to tell the children that they may be putting themselves at a greater risk of harming their bodies than an adult would.

Ecstasy works by releasing all your stores of seritonin. Despite this being a "natural" chemical in that it works by fitting itsself into a neurotransmitter, there is still evidence that it may infact be neurotoxic. So I don't think just because a drug works on a natural receptor means it will have no long term physiological damage.