A Study Demonstrates that Smoking Marijuana When Young Does Not Ruin Your Life

If you thought that the consumption of marijuana early in life was likely to adversely affect your quality of life or your socioeconomic level, you were mistaken. A group of researchers at the Center of Alcohol Studies at the State University of New Jersey (Rutgers) and the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center have debunked this myth in a recent study.

After the legalisation of medical marijuana in Oregon, Alaska, Washington and Colorado, these experts wished to verify whether cannabis consumption has long-term effects in the lives of marijuana lovers.

To this end they surveyed506 men, with an average age of 36 and different experiences with marijuana consumption, from adolescence through adulthood (from age 15 to 26, to be specific). The researchers analysed variables like socioeconomic level, relationships, and satisfaction with life.

Although, logically, there were initial differences between the men selected to form the sample group, the study demonstrated that regular marijuana users do not run a greater risk of maladjustment as adults.

The research does suggest that regular users over long periods of time tend to maintain relationships, both as friends and lovers, with other people who also consume marijuana.

Thus, the study demonstrates that while cannabis lovers do tend to establish ties with other users, it yielded no indication that marijuana consumption negatively impacts them later in life. Science refutes yet another anti-marijuana prejudice.