New research suggests that teen marijuana use is not linked to later physical or mental health issues, contradicting previous studies on the same topic, UPI reported.
Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Rutgers University found that chronic marijuana use by boys was not linked to depression, psychotic symptoms or asthma later in life.
Prior marijuana research has shown a link between teen marijuana use and the later development of psychotic symptoms (delusions, hallucinations, etc.), cancer, asthma or respiratory problems.
"What we found was a little surprising," Jordan Bechtold, researcher and a psychology research fellow at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, said in a statement. "There were no differences in any of the mental or physical health outcomes that we measured regardless of the amount or frequency of marijuana used during adolescence."
The study also found no link between teen marijuana use and lifetime depression, anxiety, allergies, headaches or high blood pressure. This study is one of just a few studies on the long-term health effects of teen marijuana use that have tracked hundreds of participants for more than two decades of their lives, Bechtold said.
The recent study was an offshoot of the Pittsburgh Youth Study, which began tracking 14-year-old male Pittsburgh public school students in the late 1980s to analyze various health and social issues, Fox News reported. For 12 years, participants were surveyed annually or semiannually, and a follow-up survey was conducted with 408 participants in 2009-10 when they were 36 years old.
"We wanted to help inform the debate about legalization of marijuana, but it's a very complicated issue and one study should not be taken in isolation," Bechtold said.
The findings are detailed in the journal Psychology of Addictive Behaviors.
