Addiction is a significant problem affecting many young people today, and in this presentation, I would like to explain the problem of marijuana addiction in society. The legalization of marijuana in the United States of America and other parts of the world, such as Canada, has increased the rate of drug abuse among young people, many of whom use it for recreational purposes as opposed to the intended medical reasons. Marijuana addiction has many effects on people (Best & Lubman, 2012). One of the effects of abusing the drug is that it impairs judgment and normal brain function. People who abuse marijuana also show signs of hyperactivity and aggressive behavior when high on the drug. Marijuana increases the rate of heartbeat and respiration in human beings (Degenhardt et al., 2016). This increases anxiety and paranoia among people who abuse the substance. Studies have also revealed that excessive use of the substance could lead to constriction of the brain, leading to dyslexia among the users (Baird, 2011). Marijuana addiction among young people also renders many talents, skills, and knowledge useless to the stats, as it impairs the mental and physical performances of the people with an addiction, making their productivity redundant. Therefore, in a bid to deal with the problem of marijuana addiction among the youth, governments should restrict its use to medical purposes alone, improve life skill training in schools and at home, ensure family support and checkups, and promote nurse-family partnerships.
Life skills training helps to instill, develop, and sustain good morals and values in human beings. Many young people who abuse drugs, including cocaine, opioids, and marijuana, lack positive life skills that could guide them through effective decision-making when confronted with the temptation to abuse drugs. Parental guidance is essential to ensuring that children grow with life skills and moral values such as critical decision-making, assertiveness, and respect, which are essential when making choices in late adolescence and early adulthood. Studies have revealed a close relationship between lack of life skills and deviant or immoral behavior among young people. Adolescents who lack life skills, such as decision-making ability, struggle when it comes to dealing with peer pressure from their friends and the influence of their relatives, friends, and family to engage in drug abuse-related behavior. Thus, it is essential that the government, through the education department, make a norm for children or students to take life skill lessons and courses to improve on values such as assertiveness and decision-making among the youth.
Social support from family, relatives, and society could also help to reduce the rate of marijuana addiction among young people in the country. Many people have pointed out many reasons why governments need to legalize marijuana, but not many have discussed the social impact of the drug on the lives of older adults and young people in society. The main argument in support of the legalization of recreational and medical marijuana is the ability of the herb to prevent a range of health issues. However, problems with recovery after addiction have not been well documented when it comes to the use of marijuana among young people. For example, studies by the National Cancer Institute (2019) on mice and rats have been used to support the legalization of marijuana. Supporters argue that these studies have shown that cannabinoids, which are found in the cannabis sativa plant, have a protective impact against the growth and development of some kinds of tumors. This revelation is important because it can help inform the plant’s future use in the treatment and prevention of some kinds of tumor growth in human beings (Blumenauer & Polis, 2012). The fact that cannabis offers a protective shield against tumor growth is important because further research could be conducted to examine the future possibilities of reducing cancer development in human beings using the drug. The sentiments affect planning for the recovery of marijuana addicts. This is why society, parents, and relatives need to offer social support to people with an addiction to help them recover fully from marijuana addiction. Many young people are tempted to abuse marijuana in the guise of protecting themselves from health conditions that several research projects have shown that the plant can help prevent. Society needs to step in and educate, support, and debunk the unconfirmed findings that encourage marijuana abuse among the youth.
Nursing- and family collaboration is another better method of dealing with and helping young marijuana addicts to recover and lead normal lives. Families of marijuana addicts need to work closely with nursing professionals such as counselors, psychiatrists, and social health workers to help their young members recover from addiction. Through collaboration with the right professionals, families could learn about various behavioral therapy approaches and coping mechanisms with the people with an addiction in the family as they try to seek solutions for the affected members. Parents should encourage their adolescent children to seek medical help in the quest to deal with addiction.
Therefore, even though marijuana has the potential to prevent, cure, and manage some health problems that affect human health, its addiction among adolescent has a negative impact on their health and general well-being. Affected members of society should look for better ways of reducing marijuana addiction among adolescents through social support, creating jobs and employment opportunities for the idle youth, and, most of all, giving life skill lessons to the most vulnerable young people. This could help to improve the quality of decisions that vulnerable young people make when faced with the temptation to abuse drugs.
References
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Best, D. W., & Lubman, D. I. (2012). The recovery paradigm: A model of hope and change for alcohol and drug addiction—Australian Journal of General Practice, 41(8), 593.
Blumenauer, E., & Polis, J. (2012). The path forward: rethinking federal marijuana policy.
Degenhardt, L., Stockings, E., Patton, G., Hall, W. D., & Lynskey, M. (2016). The increasing global health priority of substance use in young people. The Lancet Psychiatry, 3(3), 251–264.
Hajizadeh, M. (2016). Legalizing and regulating marijuana in Canada: a review of potential economic, social, and health impacts. International journal of health policy and management, 5(8), 453.
Kaufman, P. L. (2018). Marijuana and glaucoma. Archives of Ophthalmology, 116(11), 1512-1513.
Lee-Winn, A. E., Mendelson, T., & Johnson, R. M. (2018). Associations between coping and marijuana use in a nationally representative sample of adolescents in the United States. Addictive behaviors, 80, 130-134.
Mack, A., & Joy, J. (2000). MARIJUANA AND CANCER. In Marijuana as Medicine? The Science Beyond the Controversy. National Academies Press (US).
Miguez, M. J., Chan, W., Espinoza, L., Tarter, R., & Perez, C. (2019). Marijuana use among adolescents is associated with deleterious alterations in mature BDNF. AIMS Public Health, 6(1), 4.
National Cancer Institute. (2019). Cannabis and cannabinoids (PDQ)–Health professional version.
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