About one in five Irish 15-16-year-olds report using cannabis. That means one in five adolescents are using a drug that can have a multitude of demonstrably negative effects on their short- and long-term mental health at a time when their brains are at the peak of their development.
Until relatively recently, cannabis use among Irish adolescents was in decline. In 2003, 17 per cent of 16-year-olds said they had used the drug in the past month; that number dropped to 7 per cent in 2011. The reverse began soon after. While there’s no single reason for this, one possible explanation is that the percentage of teenagers who view cannabis as “low risk” increased from 10 per cent in 2011 to almost 20 per cent in 2015.
As a society, we have come to view cannabis through rose-tinted glasses. Contrary to increasingly common belief, cannabis is not a harmless panacea, and it can be addictive. An estimated one in six who start smoking or ingesting cannabis before the age of 18 become dependent.
Source: Mary Cannon, Irish Times, 16th September 2019
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