With this week’s election, Massachusetts joins the ranks of
states legalizing medical marijuana. For many people, the vote marks the end of
the discussion. For parents, however, it should be only the beginning, or
perhaps the continuation, of a very important conversation that stresses one
message – for the developing adolescent brain, marijuana can be extremely
dangerous. (I keep thinking about the landmark New Zealand study showing that
adolescents who regularly smoke marijuana lose
an average of eight IQ points by adulthood, an irreversible cognitive
deficit.)
The
article in yesterday’s Boston Globe points out some of the inherent
pitfalls
