Lagos - A long-term study of Swedish men finds
that those who smoked marijuana at age 18,
especially the heaviest users, were more likely to
end up on the nation's disability rolls by age 59.
It's unclear whether the pot use in adolescence may
have led to more severe substance abuse or was an
early sign of psychiatric or social factors that
contributed to later disability, the researchers
caution.
"There is reason to believe that the associations
found in our study develop over a long period of
time and are intertwined with problems in the
labour market, in the social security system, and
with the individual," said study leader AnnaKarin
Danielsson of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.
Pot use on the rise
Marijuana is one of the most commonly used illicit
drugs in the world, with 77 million Europeans
reporting having tried it in a recent study.
Pot use in the U.S. has been on the rise since 2007,
possibly due in part to a perception of diminishing
risks. Colorado and Washington became the first
states to legalise the possession and use of
recreational marijuana by adults in 2012.
Nonetheless, studies continue to link cannabis with
a variety of psychiatric and health problems as well
as adverse social consequences, Danielsson said.
The research is limited, though, by short follow-up
times and small study samples, she told Reuters
Health in an email.
"With our unique Swedish cohort of men
comprising 98 percent of the male population at
baseline and a 39-year long follow-up time, we had
the opportunity to expand on existing knowledge,"
Danielsson said.
Marijuana use in the military
She and her colleagues analysed data from a large
study that included almost 50,000 men born
between 1949 and 1951 and conscripted into
compulsory military service in 1969 and 1970.
When the men entered the military, they were
asked about their drug, tobacco and alcohol use, as
well as questions about their family and social
backgrounds, school performance, behaviour,
psychological issues and general health.
Danielsson's team was specifically interested in the
frequency of marijuana use at age 18, when the
men were conscripted. The young men were
grouped according to how often they had ever used
pot at that point: never, 110 times, 1150 times or
more than 50 times.
Next, the study team looked at data from the
Swedish national social insurance agency, the
education registry and labour market statistics to
see how many were granted disability pensions
through 2008.
About 9 percent of the teens reported having used
marijuana when they entered the military, and 1.5
percent said they had used it more than 50 times.
The researchers found that men who used
marijuana more than 50 times before the age of 18
were 30 percent more likely to go on disability
sometime between the ages of 40 and 59.
A similar pattern was seen for young men who used
pot less frequently, with the chance of being on
disability in middle age rising with increasing pot
use at age 18.
Marijuana and drug use
However, when the study team adjusted for other
factors, including socioeconomic background, other
substance use by age 18, psychiatric diagnoses and
other health problems, the link remained
statistically significant – meaning it could not have
been due to chance – only for the heaviest users
who had smoked pot more than 50 times as young
men.
That group already had a number of problems in
their teens, the researchers note in the journal
Drug and Alcohol Dependence. Of the 654 heaviest
pot users at age 18, 80 percent also reported using
other drugs, 47 percent reported risky alcohol use
and 55 percent had a psychiatric diagnosis.
Danielsson said that smoking marijuana at a young
age may increase the risk of negative social
consequences later on in life, and that prior studies
have shown frequent marijuana use increases the
risk of using other illicit drugs.
"It may be the case that adolescent cannabis use
may lead to a series of negative life events such as,
for example, subsequent illicit drug use, illness
(e.g., dependence) and associated disability
pensions," she said.
The study cannot prove that pot use in the teen
years caused the men to end up on disability later
in life, the researchers acknowledge. They don't
know how much marijuana the men used after they
entered the military or many other details of their
lives after age 18.
Despite the study's limitations, the findings
highlight the need for further studies on marijuana
and other illicit drug use in relation to possible
health and social consequences, the study authors
conclude.
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