Abstract
Since the early 1970s, when cannabis first began to be widely used [1], the proportion of young people who have used cannabis has steeply increased and the age of first use has declined [2, 3]. Most cannabis users now start in the mid-to-late teens [1], an important period of psychosocial transition when misadventures can have large adverse effects on a young person's life chances.
Highlights
Since the early 1970s, when cannabis first began to be widely used [1], the proportion of young people who have used cannabis has steeply increased and the age of first use has declined [2,3]
There has been an increase in the numbers of adults requesting help to stop using cannabis in many developed countries, including Australia [4] and the Netherlands [1,5]
Withdrawal symptoms have been reported by 80% of male and 60% of female adolescents seeking treatment for cannabis dependence [12,13]
Summary
Since the early 1970s, when cannabis first began to be widely used [1], the proportion of young people who have used cannabis has steeply increased and the age of first use has declined [2,3]. A minority of cannabis-dependent people in surveys report seeking treatment (Chapter 7 of [1]), but among those who do, fewer than half succeed in remaining abstinent for as long as a year [9,10,22]. Those who use cannabis more often than weekly in adolescence are more likely to develop dependence, use other illicit drugs, and develop. Two studies of twins who were discordant for cannabis use have found that the relationship between cannabis use and the use of other illicit drugs persisted after controlling for the effects of shared genes and environment [34,35]
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