Legalizing marijuana will harm health of youth in Canada

[C C]

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/...052417.php

EXCERPT: The federal government's bill C-45 to legalize marijuana in Canada will jeopardize the health of young people and Parliament should vote against it, argues the interim editor-in-chief of CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) in an editorial http://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.170555.

"Simply put, cannabis should not be used by young people," says Dr. Diane Kelsall, Editor-in-Chief (Interim), CMAJ. "It is toxic to neurons, and regular use of marijuana can actually change their developing brains." The Canadian Paediatric Society and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health have publicly stated that marijuana is not harmless and can have negative effects on the brain, especially young brains....

[Syne]

True.

http://www.apa.org/monitor/2015/11/marijuana-brain.aspx
https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/...l-Use.aspx
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/pediatrician...-by-teens/

[Zinjanthropos]

The need to buy votes outweighs any negative health effects. You'd think that alcohol usage would have banned by now if gov't was concerned about the health of the electorate.

[Syne]

The need to buy votes outweighs any negative health effects. You'd think that alcohol usage would have banned by now if gov't was concerned about the health of the electorate.

Also true.

[RainbowUnicorn]

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/...052417.php

EXCERPT: The federal government's bill C-45 to legalize marijuana in Canada will jeopardize the health of young people and Parliament should vote against it, argues the interim editor-in-chief of CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) in an editorial http://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.170555.

"Simply put, cannabis should not be used by young people," says Dr. Diane Kelsall, Editor-in-Chief (Interim), CMAJ. "It is toxic to neurons, and regular use of marijuana can actually change their developing brains." The Canadian Paediatric Society and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health have publicly stated that marijuana is not harmless and can have negative effects on the brain, especially young brains....

Canada’s youth

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youth#Term...efinitions

the United Nations defines youth as persons between the ages of 15 and 24

Brain Maturity age
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story...=141164708

emerging science about brain development suggests that most people don't reach full maturity until the age 25.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24173194

New guidance for psychologists will acknowledge that adolescence now effectively runs up until the age of 25 for the purposes of treating young people. So is this the new cut-off point for adulthood?

"The idea that suddenly at 18 you're an adult just doesn't quite ring true," says child psychologist Laverne Antrobus, who works at London's Tavistock Clinic.

-----
This is now my personal opinion
i have met people who have smoked from an early age.
not any women strangely enough. not entirely sure why, maybe it has something to do with the Corpus_callosum
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_cal...dimorphism

One recent study using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) found that the midsagittal corpus callosum cross-sectional area is, after controlling brain size, on average, proportionately larger in females.[4]

anywho... the mental ability of young males who have smoked regularily from early teens is quite substantially defined in my personal expereince.
their mental ability is quite retarded. though it is extremely important to quantify the parenting & environmental variables of a child which has regular access to marijuana.
Generally speaking healthy children do not seek out & maintain drug addiction.
The environment of the child is going to be abusive in nature by intellectual and/or emotionally detrimental pathology to sustain the childs addictive process.

heavy urbanisation of children will result in the same type of environmental psychological abuse that gives rise to childhood  addictions.(this is my own personal opinion).

The instance of self medicating children whom are high functioning would be extremely statistically low.
though... they may well be the next potential Einstien, ... and the loss to the species & society substantial & unquantifiable, the ablity to filter them from the group with current funding and resources and social culture is next to impossible unles they engage in overt sexual or violent activity.

---

wanted to add, the potential to recover or more soo re-learn and learn a-new after the use has stopped may be possible much like a stroke victim may be able to learn things in a different part of the brain.

however, imagine attempting to teach a 19 yo stroke victim how to do calculus after their social world has imploded.
better they do not become a regular user in the first place.

suggesting occasional use may give them brain damage or lead to serious addiction is like the anti-vaxer arguement suggesting vaccinations cause autism.

[Secular Sanity]

I have to tell you a story that a friend shared with me the other day.

A few years ago, people were up in arms about the smoking ban that applied to any and all government assisted living programs, including section 8, senior housing, and homeless shelters.  They thought that it was class discrimination.  It gave the government the power to evict poor people for doing what would otherwise be legal in the privacy of their own home.

A friend of mine, who’s a process server, was telling me about an 85 year old woman that is being evicted from her home.  She’s not poor, but requires assisted living due to a non-smoking related disability. Even though it’s not a government subsidy, the landlords make the rules.  She’s lived in this high-end assisted living unit for close to 15 years.  She’s 85 years old and said that smoking is her only pleasure in life.  She doesn’t have any family to turn to and has been unable to find a place that meets her disability requirements.  Even if she quit smoking, the process is in motion, and she can’t stop it.  She will be homeless.  

However, smoking marijuana is okie dokie.

https://www.marijuanamortgages.com/how-h...d-housing/

https://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/documen...ijuana.pdf

[Zinjanthropos]

How come you hardly ever hear about carbon monoxide, a toxin one inhales with every drag of a cigarette whether it be tobacco or marijuana? Surely steady intake of a toxin is not good for one's health. Incomplete combustion and CO are a given, unavoidable. I don't know if people realize that initial light headed feeling you get from the first couple puffs is from the CO just inhaled.

I remember when CO detectors first became popular. My friend calls me up and says the one he bought for his dad keeps going off and could I take a look at it. When I get there his old man is sitting in his recliner with an ashtray full of discarded butts right underneath the CO detector he installed on the ceiling above the chair.