One of the most popular substances to use is marijuana. While marijuana is becoming legal in different parts of the country, it’s important to remember that it is still a drug. Thus, it is possible to develop an addiction to the substance that requires individuals to need to attend rehab for marijuana.
What Is Marijuana?
Marijuana is a greenish-gray concoction of dried flowers of Cannabis Sativa. Some individuals smoke marijuana in joints. Others smoke it in bongs. If the marijuana is rolled in cigar wraps, it’s sometimes called blunts. Marijuana sometimes even comes in brewed tea when it’s sold or consumed for medicinal purposes.
Marijuana is also commonly mixed into food or edibles such as:
- Brownies
- Candies
- Cookies
Marijuana has various names such as:
- Mary Jane
- Ganja
- Weed
- Herb
- Grass
- Bud
- Pot
Some vaporizers have increasingly become more utilized to consume marijuana. The stronger forms of marijuana include sinsemilla, which is specially tended female plants. Stronger forms of marijuana also contain concentrated resins containing high doses of marijuana’s active ingredients.
Some of marijuana’s active ingredients include:
- Amberlike shatter
- Waxy budder
- Hash oil
These resins are becoming increasingly more popular among individuals who use them both medically and recreationally. It’s important to note though that the main mind-altering and psychoactive chemicals in marijuana are responsible for the intoxicating effects that individuals seek.
The THC, also known as delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol is an addictive chemical that is found in resin and produced primarily by the leaves and buds of the female cannabis plant. This plant also contains over 500 other chemicals, including over 100 compounds that are chemically related to THC, and they are called cannabinoids. Because of all of the addictive components within marijuana with THC, rehab for marijuana programs should always be available.
What Are the Effects of Using Marijuana?
There are various effects of using marijuana. This is because marijuana is mind-altering and affects a person’s body and brain. Marijuana can also certainly be addictive and dangerous to a person’s health.
Some of the effects of using marijuana include:
1. Experiencing a High Feeling
The main reason individuals use marijuana is to experience the high feeling that it causes. The THC in marijuana stimulates a part in an individual’s brain that responds to food, sex, and pleasure.
Ultimately though, marijuana unleashes the chemical dopamine in its users. This causes people who use marijuana to experience a relaxed and euphoric feeling that can be addictive. Thus, it should be no surprise that addiction treatment centers such as Owl’s Nest offer rehab for marijuana addiction.
If an individual smokes or vapes weed, the THC can transfer into his or her bloodstream more easily. The transition is enough to get a person high within seconds or minutes. THC levels peak in roughly 30 minutes, and the effects wear off in around 1-3 hours.
If a person eats or drinks pot, it can take numerous hours for them to fully sober up. It’s common to not be completely sure how potent marijuana is. Thus, many people unintentionally and dangerously, use and abuse more marijuana than they realize. This causes many people to accidentally develop a marijuana addiction.
2. Affecting One’s Mental Health
Not every person’s experience with marijuana is enjoyable. Marijuana often leaves a person feeling afraid, anxious, paranoid, and panicking.
When people utilize marijuana, they raise the chances of experiencing clinical depression. They also possibly worsen the symptoms of any mental disorders that they are already suffering from.
Scientists aren’t exactly sure why this is.
When marijuana is taken in very high doses, it can make a person feel paranoid. This can therefore cause people to lose touch with reality and see or hear things that aren’t there.
3. An Individual’s Thinking Can Get Distorted
Marijuana can cloud a person’s judgment and senses.
The actual distorting effects of marijuana can differ depending on the following factors:
- How much marijuana was utilized in the past
- The potency of the marijuana
- How it was taken
The above-mentioned process of using marijuana can enable the following distortions:
- An overall heightening of senses that results in sounds seeming louder and colors seeming brighter
- Inhibitions being lowered so a person might engage in risky sex or take other chances that he or she would normally not take
- Hurting a person’s overall motor skills resulting in driving being a dangerous risk
- Distorting the sense of time that makes a person more long-winded
4. There’s a Huge Risk of Becoming Hooked
To get a good idea of how addictive marijuana can be, about 1 in 10 individuals who use marijuana will become dependent on it. When a person is addicted to something, it means that he or she cannot stop using it even if it harms that person’s jobs, health, finances, or relationships.
The younger the person is when using an addictive substance such as marijuana, the more intense the drug’s addictive effects will likely be. This is why teen drug counseling and rehab for marijuana are so crucial. For example, the odds of a teen who uses pot becoming addicted to the substance is 1 in 6. This could be as high as 1 in 2 among teen individuals who engage in marijuana use every day.
Warning Signs of Marijuana Addiction
The body of a teen who suffers from marijuana dependency can go into withdrawal, leaving the teen restless, irritable, and not interesting in eating without having smoked weed first. This goes into the below-mentioned warning signs of marijuana addiction.
The Brain Being Impaired
Marijuana can make it much harder for a person to learn, remember things, and focus. This short-term effect of marijuana use seems to last for 24 hours or even longer after one has stopped smoking. However, when a teen uses weed, such effects can be more permanent. For this reason, weed rehabilitation is imperative for teens.
There were imaging tests performed that indicated that some adolescents discovered that marijuana had the power to physically change their brains. Particularly, the teens that used marijuana in these studies experienced fewer connections in various parts of their brains that linked to learning, memory, and alertness.
Some tests indicated lower IQ in some individuals that use marijuana. Such information only adds to the number of reasons why rehab for marijuana addiction is necessary.
An Individual Undergoing Physical Symptoms
Marijuana can irritate and inflame a person’s lungs. Thus, if a person begins to utilize marijuana regularly, it’s possible for that person to experience the same breathing issues as a person who uses cigarettes. In fact, regular marijuana users can start continuously coughing up colored mucus.
The lungs could then start to easily pick up infections. This is especially true since THC weakens many users’ immune systems.
The Sudden Ease of A Person’s Pain and Other Symptoms
Medical marijuana has been made legal in various states. Over 10 states and Washington DC have since legalized recreational weed. However, the federal government’s ban on weed has made it difficult to study the full effect of the substance on human beings.
There has been limited research indicating the following factors:
- Continuous pain (This is considered the most common and biggest benefit of medical marijuana).
- Sleep issues for those struggling with MS, sleep apnea, and fibromyalgia
- Weight loss and loss of appetite from individuals with AIDS
- Muscle spasms and stiff muscles from multiple sclerosis
- Nausea and vomiting from chemotherapy
- Lennox-Gastaut syndrome or Dravet syndrome
- Epilepsy seizures
It Can Harm the Heart
Marijuana makes a person’s heart work much harder. A heart normally beats about 50 to 70 times per minute. However, that has the possibility of leaping to 70 to 120 beats or more per minute for over 3 hours after the initial effect of marijuana kicks in.
This added strain plus chemicals and other tar in weed can ultimately raise the chances of a person experiencing a stroke or heart attack. The risk of having a stroke or heart attack becomes much greater for a person who is older or has already acquired heart issues.
What Are Some Statistics on Marijuana Use Among Teens?
The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), which was sponsored by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, provided extensive and reliable drug use patterns in America.
The NSDUH results in 2013 included helpful information about teen and adolescent drug use. Highlights from this 2013 survey for the specific age group of 12-17 included the following statistic facts:
- The number of teenagers who utilized marijuana varied according to the age group: 1% of 12-13-year-olds used marijuana. However, in the 14-15 age group, marijuana use rose to 5.8%. It rose once again to about 14.2% in the 16-17 age group.
- There is an estimate of 7.1% of young teen individuals that are current users of marijuana.
- Compared to 2007, there was a fewer set of youth around 12-17 years old that perceived a high risk in smoking marijuana. In 2013, there were 39.5% of people who received a perception compared to 54.6% in 2007.
- Among various underage drinkers, marijuana was considered the most commonly used illicit drug especially used in combination with alcohol.
More Statistical Information on Marijuana Use Amongst Teens
The potency of marijuana, such as that with THC levels, has certainly been on the rise over the last couple of decades. This increased potency presents higher risks. This fact might account in part for the great incidence of emergency risks that were because of marijuana.
In 2011, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, there were 455,000 emergency department risks because of marijuana use. 13% of these cases involved youth that age range was between 12-17 years of age.
The majority of teenagers do not perceive marijuana as a threat. When this type of thinking occurs though, it can derail the prevention efforts at marijuana rehabilitation centers.
The United States Department of Health and Human Services reported in 2016 that youth smoking marijuana included about 5% of the students in the 8th grade, 14% of the students in the 10th grade, and 23% of the students in the 12th grade.
Marijuana use in teenagers specifically has significantly increased during the past 10 years for the 12th graders. According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services 2016 report, from 2007 to 2017, marijuana use rose from 19% to 23%. Since vaping has become the new way to smoke marijuana, a 2017 survey discovered it among about 2% of the 8th graders, 4% of the 10th graders, and 5% of the 12th graders in the last 30 days.
What Are the Causes of Marijuana Addiction Among Teens?
The causes of marijuana addiction among teens in need of marijuana rehabilitation centers are the following:
Genetics
One of the most common causes for teens developing marijuana addiction is having a genetic predisposition to do so. A first-degree relative, such as a sibling or parent, with a present or past of marijuana addiction, especially increases a teen’s chances of developing marijuana addiction. When addiction is already present in a family with a teen, the teen acquires a greater risk of developing an addiction too.
Physical
The majority of individuals who engage in drug use do so in an attempt to increase the overall levels of specific pleasure-releasing neurotransmitters such as dopamine. After an extended period of marijuana use, the function and structure of a person’s brain are altered. This prevents a person’s brain from being able to produce natural feelings of pleasure. Thus, such a person’s brain is dependent on marijuana to feel such pleasure.
Such a person’s brain even starts to make chemical changes. Once that occurs, that individual is suffering from marijuana addiction.
Environmental
When individuals start engaging in drug abuse at a younger age, they become more prone to developing an addiction later on in life. Therefore, because one of the first substances that a person, usually in his or her teens, starts abusing is marijuana, it shouldn’t be a surprise that teens often develop addictions to weed that require them to need to attend rehab for marijuana.
What Are the Signs and Symptoms of Marijuana Addiction?
To know if one’s teen suffers from a marijuana addiction, parents should pay attention to the signs and symptoms. If parents do notice that their teen is suffering from the signs and symptoms of marijuana addiction, those parents should send their children to teen drug counseling and weed rehabilitation.
Some signs of teens engaging in marijuana use are the following:
- Increased disciplinary actions in school, oppositional behaviors, moodiness, irritability, and agitation
- Elevated depression levels, secretive behaviors, and increased anxiety levels
- Lack of involvement and interest in activities and sports
- Decreased academic performance
- Isolation from family and friends
- Increased school absences
- Lowered motivation levels
- Social circle changes
- Glassy, red eyes
Marijuana Addiction Treatment Awaits at Owl’s Nest Today
Rehab for marijuana is available at marijuana rehabilitation centers such as Owl’s Nest Recovery. Depending on how severe the patient’s addiction is though will determine whether or not outpatient or inpatient treatment is needed for his or her rehab for marijuana.
Teen drug counseling is needed to assess the conditions of teens that are addicted to substances. It’s also needed for professionals to develop an individualized plan to help such teens. Teenagers participating in therapy, aftercare, and maintenance can prevent the risk of relapse. Contact us today to get started.
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