The article recounts the troubling case of Sam, a 17-year-old whose regular marijuana use led to increasing psychotic symptoms and social withdrawal. His parents, initially dismissive of the risks, discovered that his casual use progressed to daily consumption, resulting in alarming behavior changes. Despite a three-week rehab program that prohibited cannabis, Sam's psychosis worsened, underscoring the need for greater awareness of the potential mental health impacts of early cannabis use, especially in states where access to marijuana is easier for teenagers.
In California, where I work as researcher and clinician studying the links between cannabis use and psychosis, it is not difficult to get a medical marijuana card, even for a teenager.
Over time, he began using cannabis daily. He took it a variety of ways, first with friends at parties, and then increasingly alone.
His parents noticed increasingly odd behavior: He covered up the camera on his laptop and then placed cardboard over the windows in his room.
During the three-week program he was fully abstinent from cannabis, but disturbingly his psychotic symptoms got worse rather than better; simply stopping wasn't enough for Sam to recover.
Collection
[
|
...
]