A recent study has found that marijuana smokers only cut down on smoking after becoming parents but do not quit. With a changing landscape for marijuana use, the research by the University of Washington’s Social Development Research Group (SDRG) aimed to present information about marijuana use among parents and -alike.
‘"We also need to tackle people's positive attitudes toward marijuana if we want to reduce use", said Epstein, lead author and scientist.’
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"When it comes to adults, we don’t know long-term consequences of moderate marijuana use in the legal context, so that we cannot say that we absolutely must intervene," explained lead author Marina Epstein."However, when it comes to parents, their use is strongly related to their children’s marijuana use, and that is a significant problem, since adolescent marijuana use can be harmful. Our study wanted to prepare us to build effective interventions for all adults if it becomes an issue."
The study surveyed 808 adults (parents and non-parents), a group the SDRG first identified as fifth-graders at Seattle elementary schools in the 1980’s as part of a long-term research project. For the marijuana study, participants were interviewed at specific intervals over a 12-year period, ending when most participants were 39 years old.
That survey concluded in 2014 -- two years after marijuana was legalized in Washington. A parent-only subset of 383 people was surveyed at separate times, ending in 2011, just before the statewide vote that gave rise to pot shops.
Women and people of color made up approximately half the big study pool; of the parent sub-sample, about 60 percent were women, and an equivalent percentage were people of color. The UW research found that, in general, a greater percentage of non-parents reported using marijuana in the past year than parents.
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Those trends were true of both parents and non-parents, demonstrating the impact of attitudes and the behavior of others, Epstein said. "This shows that we need to treat substance use as a family unit. It isn’t enough that one person quits; intervention means working with both partners," she said.
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Source-ANI