The Myth of 'Harmless' Marijuana

By John P. Walters

Wednesday, May 1, 2002; Page A25

Last December the University of Michigan released its annual survey "Monitoring the Future," which measures drug use among American youth. Very little had changed from the previous year's report; most indicators were flat. The report generated little in the way of public comment.

Yet what it brought to light was deeply disturbing. Drug use among our nation's teens remains stable, but at near-record levels, with some 49 percent of high school seniors experimenting with marijuana at least once prior to graduation -- and 22 percent smoking marijuana at least once a month.

After years of giggling at quaintly outdated marijuana scare stories like the 1936 movie "Reefer Madness," we've become almost conditioned to think that any warnings about the true dangers of marijuana are overblown. But marijuana is far from "harmless" -- it is pernicious. Parents are often unaware that today's marijuana is different from that of a generation ago, with potency levels 10 to 20 times stronger than the marijuana with which they were familiar.

Marijuana directly affects the brain. Researchers have learned that it impairs the ability of young people to concentrate and retain information during their peak learning years, and when their brains are still developing. The THC in marijuana attaches itself to receptors in the hippocampal region of the brain, weakening short-term memory and interfering with the mechanisms that form long-term memory. Do our struggling schools really need another obstacle to student achievement?

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