week 15 course reflexion Community Nurse
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Effects of Legalization of Cannabis
Name Zoraida Seoane
Course Community Nurse
Instructor Lysis Camacho
Date of submission 11/2/2020
Impact of Legalization of Cannabis in Children and Adolescents
The legalization of cannabis in some states will impact the prevalence of cannabis use among children and adolescents. Frequent use of cannabis during the adolescent stage can cause functional and structural changes in the development of an individual's brain, causing severe damage. The structural change includes reduced brain volumes, different folding patterns and thinning of the cortex, low neural connectivity, and reduced white matter integrity. The functional change in adolescent result due to increased intake of cannabis include increased neural activity. The addiction to cannabis use in the adolescent stage is usually associated with frequent use of cannabis and other substance use disorders in the areas that marijuana is legalized.
Additionally, addiction to marijuana in the adolescent stage increases the rate of depression, anxiety, and transient psychosis. Transient psychosis symptoms in the adolescent stage increase individuals' chance of suffering from a psychotic disorder in the future (Morrissette & Shamlou, 2020). The brain of an individual continues to grow in a person's early 20's thus, teens taking marijuana will affect their brain cells. Moreover, cannabis increases the level of smoking in this age group; thus, smoking increases the risk of being affected by cerebrovascular disease. Furthermore, usage of cannabis is associated with a low-performance level in schools; thus, the students' low grades may affect their future educational levels; thus, the legalization will impact the teens' education level.
Young people in the adolescent stage who highly use marijuana take a more extended period to achieve the lifetime goal as most of their time is spent on cannabis usage; thus, the legalization of marijuana may increase the poverty level. According to Prini (2020), the legalization of cannabis will lead to impaired neurological development and cognitive weakening in young adolescent people. Adolescents who chronically use marijuana are exposed to higher risks of long-lasting cognitive impairment; they also pose non-quality decision skills, which contribute to an increased number of dropouts.
Moreover, the legalization of cannabis will increase the drug's consumption both intentionally and unintentionally in the particular age group. In recent years, some food processing companies are producing marijuana-infused foods products like cookies and candies, which may be distributed to teens who are not interested in smoking. The most affected country in the usage of cannabis in teen is Canada which negatively affect their life thus legalization to other countries will have the same effects. Moreover, cannabis will lead to short term memory in teens. The IQ of cannabis teen users significantly decline as opposed to that of the non-users in their mid-age.
In a nutshell, the legalization of cannabis in some states may lead to adverse and severe effects on teens who have a great time to shape their lives and decrease the poverty level in a country. Additionally, the legalization of cannabis will affect the brain development of children negatively.
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Reference
Morrissette, M., & Shamlou, A. (2020). Experiences of treating patients with psychotic symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. Psychosis, 1-3. doi: 10.1080/17522439.2020.1769165
Prini, P., Zamberletti, E., Manenti, C., Gabaglio, M., Parolaro, D., & Rubino, T. (2020). Neurobiological mechanisms underlying cannabis-induced memory impairment. European Neuropsychopharmacology.
