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Marijuana Opinions and Usage

The National Institute on Drug Abuse, which is part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, reports that more than eleven million young adults (ages eighteen to twenty-five) in the United States use marijuana at least once a year. It also found that negative opinions about marijuana use are lessening as mari- juana is legalized in more states and countries. However, this does not mean that more teens and children are using marijuana. In fact, many studies in marijuana-legal states such as Colorado and California indicate that fewer teens are using marijuana since it was legalized, or at least use has not increased. The increasing availability of marijuana in cities across the world means that it is around teens and young adults more, although laws keep them from buying it legally.

Learn more about the negative effects of marijuana on the teenage brain, and the debate about legalization:

What Happens to Your BrainWhen You Use Marijuana? When marijuana is smoked or vaporized, the THC passes from your lungs into your bloodstream, which carries it to your brain and other organs. (THC is a chemical found in marijuana that alters people’s mental state.) THC attaches to cannabinoid

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