New Study Finds that Heavy Marijuana Use is Tied to Mid-Life Troubles
The subject of marijuana legality and its value or lack thereof has been a constantly and heatedly debated topic in the U.S. The “marijuana issue” has been under contention and argument for over a decade, with arguments for and against it being lobbed back and forth on community, state, and federal levels alike. While it is true that marijuana is by no means the worst drug out there, there are negative characteristics to consuming marijuana or cannabis-based products. One study indicates a strong tie between marijuana use and mid-life troubles in adults.
Study Results on the Quality of Life a Regular Marijuana User Has
In 2016, the University of California, Davis published an extensive, decades in the making study and research project on the lifestyles and quality of life that regular pot smokers have. The research found that:
- Regular marijuana users tend to have lower paying, less skilled, and less prestigious jobs than non-marijuana-users do.
- Consistent marijuana smokers are more likely to suffer from money problems. They are more likely to have difficulties at work as well.
- Marijuana smokers are more likely to have problems with their personal relationships than their non-marijuana smoking peers do.
- Research indicates that longtime marijuana users experience antisocial behavior at work with more prevalent frequency than non-marijuana-smokers do.
- Consistent marijuana users are more likely to either commit or even be the effect of intimate partner violence.
- Marijuana use on a regular and even daily basis was observed to also be present in a middle-aged person’s drop in income, social standing, financial stability, relationship stability, and quality of living in general.
Contention Against the Published Study Results
Of course, as marijuana becomes more popular and socially accepted in modern-day society, study results like the above get a lot of disagreement and bad-mouthing. However, the study results come from extensive and thorough research.
Researchers at the University of California studied the lifestyle patterns and life quality of more than one-thousand people born between 1972 and 1973. The study participants had been followed throughout their lives, as a part of the study, for forty years. The study collected data on all adults in the study, examining every facet and aspect of their lives.
The adults who experienced multiple marijuana assessments and who admitted to regular and consistent marijuana use had noticeably poorer quality lives than the adults who did not partake in marijuana. While the study can’t outright prove that marijuana actually caused these conditions, the prevalence of poor-life indicators in marijuana users versus the lack of that same prevalence in non-marijuana users is pretty indicative.
Looking to Better Life Habits
Marijuana is a drug that provides a plethora of negative phenomena to those who consume it. The relative “benefit” of the drug, if such a benefit even exists, is arguable. We need to encourage people to pursue better life habits in general. While no one can argue that marijuana is just as bad as some of the powerful narcotic drugs and pharmaceuticals that kill dozens of people every day, smoking marijuana is taking a conscious step into the drug realm, a realm that one might never be able to get out of again.
Is smoking marijuana worth the negative consequences and the risks of further addiction and substance abuse? Not likely. Are finding alternative remedies to physical or mental ailments that are non-addictive and abuse-deterrent a better course of action? Most definitely. We need to innovate better solutions. Marijuana use is not a solution to anything.
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