A new study conducted by the American Psychological Association found that those who begin smoking marijuana during late adolescence do not pose an elevated risk for lung cancer, depression, or other associated physical and mental health issues than those who decide not to smoke. The study was initiated to help inform the debate about the federal legalization of marijuana.

Lead researcher and The University of Pittsburgh medical center psychology research fellow Jordan Bechtold admits,“What we found was a little surprising,” and goes on to say, “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’s sampling included more than 400 males in the Pittsburgh vicinity between the ages of 14 and 36. Various races and ethnic origins were also a variable in which 54 percent of the population was black, 42 percent was white, and 4 percent was from other various races.

The test subjects were then parsed down into four subgroups according to their recreational use. The first subdivision, the non-or-low-users, comprised of 46 percent of the population; the second group who smoked consistently made up 22 percent; and the third sector, those who only smoked during their teen years made up 11 percent; and the fourth group (21 percent) included users who started during their late adolescence and have continued to smoke up to the present.

The study revealed that early and regular smokers have a higher concentration of marijuana use, and that users who started to rapidly consume it during their teenage years peaked at around 200 days per year, on average by the age of 22; however, in this subgroup, marijuana use only slightly fell.

Source: Pioneer News