Legal Weed Feeds the Teen Mental-Health Crisis

March 2, 2023

(Wall Street Journal) – Twenty-one states have legalized recreational marijuana use since 2012, and teen mental-health problems have been on the rise in the same period. The connection between the two, which I’ve observed in my work as a psychoanalyst, doesn’t get enough attention. A 2019 meta-analysis published in JAMA Psychiatry observed that “cannabis consumption in adolescence is associated with increased risk of developing major depression in young adulthood and suicidality, especially suicidal ideation.” A 2021 National Institutes of Health study likewise found a heightened risk of suicide, “greater for women than men.” (Read More)