Whenever anyone opposes the topic of marijuana they are challenged to back up their opposition with recent scientific evidence.
A recently published study in The Lancet involving, among others, researchers at King's College London, compared 900 people who had been treated for psychosis with 1,200 people who had not.
Groups were surveyed on a number of factors, including their use of marijuana and other drugs. The study's authors concluded that "people who smoked marijuana on a daily basis were three times more likely to be diagnosed with psychosis compared with people who never used the drug. For those who used high-potency marijuana daily, the risk jumped to nearly five times." By "high-potency" the researchers meant marijuana with a THC content of more than ten percent. To put that figure in context, a study of weed confiscated by the Drug Enforcement Administration between 1995 and 2014 found the THC content went from about 4 percent in 1995 to 12 percent in 2014.
According to a recent broadcast from Breaking Point, "it is not uncommon to read of marijuana that is legally sold in places like Colorado with THC content above 20 percent, occasionally 30 percent."
Since marijuana was legalized in Colorado, the state has seen a spike in marijuana-related emergency room visits by people between the ages of 13 and 20. If you have not already, we encourage you to talk to your teens about how they feel marijuana has influenced culture. Do they have friends that use marijuana? Is marijuana really all that bad? It can't be if so many states are legalizing it, right?
Axis has created A Parents Guide to Marijuana to help you get the conversation started. The guide takes a biblical approach to what is currently known scientifically about marijuana to help you guide your teens into a better understanding of God's best for their lives.
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