Taking cannabis in your teens is 'NOT linked to depression, lung cancer or asthma in later life', study reveals

By Madlen Davies for MailOnline
Published: 17:00 GMT, 4 August 2015 | Updated: 11:56 GMT, 5 August 2015

Using marijuana as a teenager does not appear to be linked to health problems such as depression, psychotic symptoms or asthma later in life, a study has revealed.

Researchers found no difference in the mental or physical health of adults who had smoked cannabis as a teenager, and those who had not.

'What we found was a little surprising,' said lead researcher Dr Jordan Bechtold, of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
'There were no differences in any of the mental or physical health outcomes that we measured regardless of the amount or frequency of marijuana used during adolescence.'

As part of the study, the researchers tracked 408 Pittsburgh males from adolescence into their mid-30s.
Around 54 per cent were black, 42 per cent were white and 4 per cent were of other races or ethnicities.
The men in the study were divided into four groups based on their reported use of marijuana.
The groups included low or non-users (46 per cent); early chronic users (22 per cent); participants who only smoked marijuana during adolescence (11 per cent); and those who began using marijuana later in their teen years and continued using the drug (21 per cent).

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3185189/Taking-cannabis-teens-...
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