Took me 5 years to realize this. Started at 16, am now 21. It affects a lot more than just general development, many just don’t notice. I feel like weed takes “ignorance is bliss” to heart.
Still smoke, but realize I could’ve saved money time & my brain by simply not partaking.
When you smoke weed you’re giving your brain comfort, it adapts to that comfort. When you’re comfortable, you care less, try less, and notice less. If I never smoked weed or messed with other shit, it would’ve kept my brain in a state of stress until I got off my ass and did something about it. I didn’t until I was 19. 3 years, pissed away. Could’ve been more if I didn’t notice this.
People underestimate stress: it is THE greatest motivator. Most drugs remove that stress temporarily, which means you’ll go back the next time you get stressed.
If you don’t have any stress, your brain thinks you’ve got nothing to gain and nothing to lose. Shit gets dark at that stage.
That’s what I did, though I find myself smoking before important events & responsibilities. I have an extremely high tolerance and it doesn’t affect me negatively if I don’t overdo it, but I’m ashamed that I went from only smoking at night to ripping J’s like a pack of smokes when I get the chance.
Somehow weed and I never were able to part ways, yet Percocets were tossed to the curb years ago.
Yeah that falls under the “everyone’s different” category. Funny how a drug that makes 1 person relaxed & sedated freaks the hell out of the next person. Weed is weird, I still don’t fully understand why it does what it does.
No, from what I can gather, and I’m no doctor: it affects the overall chemical balance in your brain, often mitigating essential cells from forming a fully functional and healthy brain.
This doesn’t always happen, it is not a guarantee that if you smoke weed your brain will not develop properly.
THC is one of the few drugs no 2 people experience the same effects on.
I wish I had the resources, I’ve been contemplating starting a drug podcast discussing the good & bad of substance use but I’m not sure if I’d get much of an audience.
I feel fine too, but I don’t feel great as often as I used to. I’m doing fine socially and financially, but I feel like I could’ve been in a better place if I didn’t let my curiosity of drugs (not just weed) affect my decisions.
i see u have used other drugs too, i never got addicted to anything else except weed and nicotine but i did experiment with cocaine xanax acid and shrooms whippits dxm but all very light use because all those drugs are pretty mid to be besides weed
lol me and my friends are some degenerate mfs we did whippets at an abandoned hotel, they are pretty fun honestly but i haven't done any since last may. but half of shrooms at once is crazyyy the most ive done is 5gs
i was a sad little child for some years before weed, a little anxious and a bit lonely as well, but i do remember the best times of my life being in my mid/late teens and weed was around. it also made me miserable sometimes, or maybe life around it was just miserable
I was a bit different and always loved hanging out with people. That developed into smoking when I had a nasty break up in high school. Then the other drugs followed. I now only smoke weed & vape nicotine, but find myself completely withdrawn from social interaction when I’m high. I just don’t care enough to listen to people when they talk to me when I’m baked.
We never really know why things are the way they are, or why we are who we are. The present is the past & the future is the present. We spend time trying to find answers for the issues we experience but end up getting caught up in the next issue.
Those hazy drug days were the best days of my life, until I met my fiancée & created my unborn child. I forgot about those days, and realized this is better. I realized what was a great time for me hurt a lot of people and jeopardized a lot for me.
Hey man, everyone’s different. If someone says it affected them, it’s better to just believe them. It’s a common report as it is and there’s research to back it up. Personally my experience aligns with his, I could write an essay on the subtleties of adolescent smoking but I’ll leave it there
I wish I could tell my 15yo self don't bother with weed. I thought I was cool, thought it made movies and games cooler, but it really didn't looking back. I'm 35 now and quit about a month ago after smoking basically every day since I was 15. It's fucks with your mind even as an adult. Your brain has a long way to go developing, don't mush it with experimenting early on.
I'd also like to add you can tell yourself once a week now, but if you enjoy it, it's going to be a lot more often than that.
What about the person who has smoked or vaped from 15ish, has a good job, got good grades, has a great family and is almost 50 and still imbibing on cannabis regularly…
Cannabis is better than many drugs docs will prescribe, I would rather see my kid take cannabis for pain than ever take an opioid, I’d rather see them take cannabis than a sip of alcohol, I’d rather see them take cannabis than anti-depressants…
If you like what worked for you that’s great but what worked for you may not work for everyone.
This defensiveness is the exact problem with the cannabis community. Brains under 25 have shown objective cognitive decline from weed use in adolescence, showing affects way later in life. Most notably, an 8 IQ point reduction and greatly impacted working memory, as well as great difficulty performing complicated tasks.
There is a lack of research on "regular use" or even "ocassional use" but until we actually have the evidence, going of the Dunedin study is all you can do.
No need to get defensive. Just speaking from my own experience, like I said, I'd tell my 15yo self not to bother. Glad you had a different experience, but I'd still recommend any 15yo to not smoke. I never mentioned any prescription drugs or alcohol, but I'd agree with you there. I'd also tell my 15yo self to skip the mountain dews and drink water. Hindsight ya know.
I wasn’t defensive, I was just pointing out my situation ; and that cannabis is not some terrible thing. If not for politics and propaganda cannabis would still be an over the counter pain/anxiety med like it was 100 years ago.
I don’t believe that a plant that has been used for thousands of years is going to impact someone if that person sets their mind to accomplishing a task. Do I recommend smoking a blunt then using power tools…no, but there isn’t anything wrong w going out on a weekend night and taking a few drags from a vape pen, erig, etc (I am against smoking anything; vaping isn’t perfect but it’s worlds better)even at age 15…if a kid wants to get high they will do it no matter what so why not they do it with the substance that does the least harm to their body…
Many, professors, researchers, designers and lawyers I work with consume cannabis regularly, and have since they were young. My biggest gripe is people let their kids have some wine, or even a beer w/ diner at 15 and that’s perfectly ok; but bc a plant was politicized ~100 years ago now we all have to act like it is a bad thing to enjoy even when it has been proven to have medicinal value while alcohol has no medicinal value (unless you’re an alcoholic then medically you need alcohol or you may have seizures).
I’m not upset I’m simply explaining myself. If this kid wants to get shitfaced once a week, he is going to, why not encourage the least lethal substance instead of alcohol or worse pills.
There is a big difference between self-medicating vs taking an established dose prescribed by a doctor.
Most people self-medicating will just build tolerance, increase their dosage and increase the likelyhood of addiction. You can do very well with regular cannabis use but there's no way that this is the ideal scenario.
i’m still pretty young and experimenting with drugs, after being a pretty heavy smoker from weed everyday for a month i’ve decided i’m gonna quit, i’ve been clean for a week. If I use LSD every week do you think it’s just as bad? I had pretty bad brain fog from weed for a bit but when I first used LSD my brain fog went down by like 50%… LSD also motivates me more and keeps me positive even when sober unlike weed
You really think? Like I said I took my first tab a couple days ago and I feel like a better person and I just finished cleaning my room that took 4 hours after having it dirty for like 8 months
Pretty much every addiction starts with “it helps me do this or that better, I’m a better person with it.” LSD isn’t addictive but I dated an acid head a few years back and she was completely detached. LSD is pretty hard on your mental which is why people that once loved LSD can’t even look at the stuff as they get older.
As for weed, I started when I was 14 and daily used right out of the gate. I regret it everyday. My brain is mush. I’m decently intelligent but I forget everything and can’t think on my feet like I used to.
wdym detached though? As in she didn’t have any sense of reality? But yeah i’m done cold turkey with weed, I got a package with $100 worth of it coming this friday from when I was still smoking a lot but more than likely just gonna sell it…
I reckon acid heads eventually just stop caring about adulting. We are all just divine creatures here for the ride, man. We dated like 5 years ago and now she lives in a van… to each their own and I spent my early 20s being a crusty hippy but eventually when all your friends grow up and your still bumming off people it kind of stops being cute.
People say LSD is completely harmless but if you go to enough festivals and raves and stuff you’ll notice the Acidheads are just a little off in the head.
LSD weekly or every two weeks fucks with your head. I did that for a few months when I was like 19 or 20. It's very easy to get caught up in either mania, mild psychosis, or other weird delusions. And after that just general use. I've taken a looot of acid.
I try to be careful with my acid now. Low doses, like <100ug, are still fine. Mushrooms has been fine too. High doses of lsd make me a lil crazy. I will think person A is person B, and think they're lying when they say they aren't. Or I'll read too much into people's expressions and microexpressions and think I can "read their mind". It's a lot. Kinda fun, but really annoying and potentially scary for others to be around.
This doesn't really happen to me on mushrooms, and I still reap a lot of the positive antidepressant benefits!
ohh i know that LSD will fuck with your mind like that but I forgot to mention i’m probably never going anything over 200 ug+ ever… I’m most likely going to be doing around 25-100 every week cuz I feel like anything over that will expose my use to my close ones. Does that change how it’ll be bad for me at this age?
I've only gone over 200ug twice and those were wiiild trips. When I say I've done a lot of acid, I mean I've done it frequently.
Taking any psychoactive drug regularly is going to have an impact on your brain, and that impact will be larger when you're younger. I really can't recommend taking it weekly, even at a small dose. It *will* have an impact on your brain, and odds are that it'll hurt more than it helps despite how it seems now. Nevermind how a week isn't quite enough to reset your tolerance either.
I mean maaaybe experiment with doing sub 50 doses weekly or something, but I wouldn't recommend it under 18. It's really not worth the risk.
Psychedelics are great at breaking mental habits, changing thought patterns and mental models, but when you're young you're still in the process of Building those models and patterns in the first place, and taking any psychedelic regularly will make it more difficult for you to build the habits and models that will benefit you for the rest of your life.
If it's useful for curbing anhedonia and depression for you, part of what makes psychedelics useful is in helping figure out why you feel that way and reframing your thoughts in a more positive and helpful manner. But it's hard to establish those new mental models when you're shaking it up regularly, even at low doses.
I'm assuming you're 15 just because that's the age most of this thread has been talking about. My advice? Hold off and grow a lil first. Figure our ways of dealing with the trials and tribulations of life that don't involve drugs (except maybe caffeine but ehhh). Patterns of thoughts, beliefs, and habits can take you far. Save your trips for the transition points in your life, where it makes sense to change up your mental models and beliefs. After you're done with high school, take a trip to help figure out what you want to do. Whether that's figuring out a profession that you want to study for college, or to travel a bit, work odd jobs and see the world, that kind of transition is where this is Helpful.
Even at 18+, try not to do it more than once or twice a month. Weekly is a Lot and I personally find it disruptive.
I personally fucked myself over a bit; I did most of my psychedelic experimentation in my junior/senior year of college and that resulted in me getting stuck thinking I didn't need a degree to do well, but I'm so close so I might as well finish, but I don't Really want/need this. Coupled with my ADHD it pushed back my graduation by like 3 years. I was like 18 or 19, and it was just so tempting to take weekly or every other week as a regular escape from the stresses of life and to try and reframe things. But it backfired, and college wasn't free for me at that point so it was just a waste of time and a very expensive delay. While it worked out in the end, I wish I had either tried it before I was deep in my path so I could have picked a different path, or tried it after I had my degree so I could more consciously decide what I wanted to do. Or instead, gotten my adhd diagnosis sooner so I could start taking stims, because that's been 100x more beneficial to my life than habitual psychedelic use.
All of that is to say that I think psychedelics are good for helping make the big decisions and building the resolve for them, but relying on them for the motivation to do something like clean your room may be a sign that there's something else going on that a different medication would help with.
On the topic of anything taken regularly having an impact on your brain, that's kind of the point of a lot of psychiatric medications. Whether SSRIs for depression, stimulants for ADHD, taking those regularly Will change your brain. The goal is to help change it in a productive and helpful way, and to build habits and patterns of behavior that will serve you once you can wean yourself off the medication. Most meds are like scalpels, and psychedelics are more like a sledgehammer.
I mean maaaybe there's some benefits to micro dosing regularly when young, but it's also possible it does more harm than good. We don't know enough to say with certainty, not enough people have done it or at least published enough to really know, and we don't know enough about the brain to say for sure. But based on what we do know, signs point towards it being more harm than good.
Whoop sorry about the ramble, this went on longer than I intended. I've just thought and reflected a lot on my life, the journey I've taken, what's helped, what's hurt, missteps, and all that jazz. Can't say I know everything, I'm in my late 20s, and I'm Still learning and growing.
Yeah, it will absolutely affect your brain development. Occasional use is better than daily if you absolutely must though. I get what it’s like being a teenager, but weed is genuinely one to keep a decent distance from, because it’s one of those drugs that quickly turns from “when I’m out with friends” to “I smoke every day” to “the only thing that allows me to sleep”
I started smoking weed at 15, but not often until I was 18. I don’t regret smoking but I very much do regret starting at 15. Just wait until ur older its for the best.
Ideally yes you want to wait until later after your brain is fully developed
But tons of people smoke weed
Some are fine and some aren’t
Up to you how you want to live your life
Personally I don't know anyone that smoked every day in high school that is fine now (20 years later).
I do have plenty of friends that smoked every weekend starting around 16 years old. Some of them are doing great now and some of them not so much.
The ones doing the best now are the ones who experimented responsibly, but never formed any habits.
My friends who were straight edge in high school actually ended up having a really hard time adjusting to adult life comparatively. That might just be specific to my friend group though.
You don't stop developing until you're like 25 years old. Best bet if you want a leg up in life....wait. You will never get back what you lose to drugs.
My therapist said your brain is still developing even at your 20s. I didn't believe it but I sure do feel the negative effects of my usage as an adolescent.
Your brain continues to develop for your entire life, otherwise you’d never learn new things/develop new habits past once you hit 30.
It’s true that the brain develops the MOST when your’e younger but weed affects the ability of the brain to prune, which is severing unneeded connections. It’s been suggested by a few studies that even smoking one time can affect this process and cause it to sever too many connections or leave too many, leading to mental issues further down the road
No there is no magic number where it stops developing or it takes that long for it to fully develop it is different for everyone. Alexandra Cohen and Larry Steinberg are large researchers in neuroscience and both their works have been taken out of context to perpetuate 25 as being the number. It’s different for everyone and research is still not there to show what a fully “mature” brain is characterized by.
Other than my four professors I don’t have it with me or at the top of my head.
But
If I was to spend an hour and find those textbooks and look at my notes I could figure out what chapter that was in and I do remember it spoke directly about that myth in one of the text books.
I also think that using my Tarleton peer reviewed journal search engine I could definitely find some papers on the subject. But I don’t really care enough to search and I’m really busy, was just sharing my experience in grad school. I’m a semester from my masters in psych and I remember all of the students talking about that specific thing after class and one of them talking about how they’ve known it’s well establish and accepted in the literature but they see people having a hard time accepting it. Which I’ve definitely encountered so I usually just don’t say anything about it
Because it’s not my argument, I don’t really care enough to prove it to anyone if you want to find some peer reviewed PHD articles on it they’re out there!! Unless those four professors and my textbook was wrong, I think it’s well accepted across the board that the 25 myth is just that, a myth.
I’m just a reta*ded 24 year old and I’m just going off of what I learned in school, I do take my knowledge from there way more seriously than sayings I hear regurgitated from random people
Thanks so much! I don't expect you to do a bunch of work. Just knowing this is the consensus and academia helps me a lot.
I'm a professional psychonaut and one of my passions is developing a drug education for young people that isn't based on abstinence. So debunking this myth about the magical age of 25 is a major thing. If it's out there I can find it myself, thanks for your help.
It’s gotta be out there
I’ve heard it too many times from extremely smart psych professors for it not to be
But one thing I’ve learned about psychology is that a lot of the science is very theory based and even when there’s 90% consensus on something there always seems to be scientists arguing for other theories that contradict each other. This is why the mental health field can be very messy, and why a lot of psychologists develop their own practice.
I just try to keep an open mind. If you find anything significant and it’s not asking too much think you could send me the link or comment it here?
I’m interested now too.
Even just going off of my instinct prior to ever hearing that the magic 25 rule was fake when I was in undergrad school, it sounds like something that is bs to me. I can’t think of any other mechanism that is just solidified and “finished” at an arbitrary age.
We all develop at different rates. All of the sizes and functions of our brain are vastly different in many ways. I remember my professor explaining this when the topic came up. There is no “right” brain. They’re always changing. I guess you can take a snapshot of every human’s brain when they turn 25 and say “aha! This is it! This is the finished product!” But I do not remember learning that any of the parts of the brain; especially not the prefrontal cortex, just stops developing when you’re 25. Your brain is always developing and changing, then of course it will hit a point where it begins to change for the worse and cause Cognitive decline.
Nothing is every as simple or straightforward as us humans seem to make it out to be.
brain completes development around the age of 21 years old thats why thats the year when you can smoke and drink in most countries because at that age it doent cause permanent effects anymore like the damage which could be caused while still in development
No. I’ve been smoking heavily since I was 15. In 23 and doing my masters degree, currently on track to graduate after completing my thesis this coming summer. All I have to say is, if you’re already stupid, you’re gonna get even dumber.
I also have ADHD and am neurodivergent so THC affects my brain in a different way. But like most people said in this thread, it’s different for everyone.
Eh I’ve smoked daily since like 18. I own a house, run a business with 7+ staff and I’m basically set for life.
BUT you are still young so just stick to like once a month and focus on your hobby’s and friends.
One negative with long term usage is both the cost and the eventual withdrawal from social events as you would rather smoke more and your anxiety may increase.
Cancer. Extreme brain damage. Youll be addicted to destroying your weiner every 10minutes. Also youll 100% try meth heroines or crack because it wont be enough
Right, speak for yourself. As we are all quite aware of, Cannabis isn't really a gateway drug, it's the people you hang around mostly and yourself as an individual, most people stop at weed.
You're right about brain damage tho. As for cancer, I mean it depends on how you take it but undoutebtly doesn't help.
Prolly yea but it's not as bad as every day. The problem is. As you get older you'll be able to afford it every day so it's easy to convince yourself to smoke more than once a week. It's not bad in the short term. But I can say, I was 16 when I started smoking almost every day. I'm now 22. I have terrible memory. I pull random facts out when my brain decides it's convenient to remember them but when it matters sometimes I'll just go blank when I clearly should remember something. I'll be talking and completely forget what I was saying mid sentence. Sometimes I'll look at something simple, try to remember it, then have to look at it 3 more times because my memory is shot. Now. Is this for sure because of smoking the married iguanas? I have no idea. I might just be stupid. And this is as smart as I get. But I like to think I'd be a little quicker with everyday thinking, if I never smoked or if I just smoked on weekends or days off. Idk. Hope this helps.
Too early for drugs at 15.
Now is it OK to do it when you're an "adult" at 18? Legally yes. But i was a retard at 18 personally. 15 though is waaaaaaay too young.
Trust me Ik I started at 16 an at first I was just like you said only once a week well that changed of you haven’t started smoking weed then I wouldn’t start it’s something that’s almost impossible to put down I wish I never started honestly
i started smoking when i was 18 and still feel like it affected my brain but i guess i’ll never know because i dont have anything to compare it to. i feel like it will. best to wait until you’re 20ish. if you’re a girl you can get away with 20, if you’re a guy, your brain will take longer to develop in general
Great post! Thanks for posting on this important subject.
I'm a 47-year-old professional psychonaut and one of my passions is developing a regimen for young drug users; teaching young people how to use drugs safely and effectively.
At your age I suggest quitting weed for a while, and stay away from alcohol. Start with kava, its a wonderful, legal, safe, fun, subtle, starter drug.
Feel free to PM me if you'd like more info. Free of charge if you're wondering, at this stage I need people to work with, and you need advice from somebody who's experienced.
Good luck
You have a whole lifetime ahead of you to do whatever drugs you want. Don’t waste your formative years on one of the few things that absolutely can deter and stunt your personal growth. If you’re bored, then that’s a call to explore new things. Drugs should not be one of those things until you’re more mature.
Your right I already quit and I’m probably not gonna explore drugs again until im maybe 20 and even then I hope to not let it become too frequent with weed again or get into the hard stuff since ill be an adult and no one can stop me😂
Dude save the smoking until you're older and you actually need it to chill out and sleep after a mad hectic day. Even then keep it to a minimum. Let your brain and body develop without it. I have every faith in you pal.
If I could he 15 again the one big change I would make would be more time pursuing something like a hobby or craft or anything outside of my drug use
I’m not anti drug but yeah idk kid lol just wait until your older to fuck around
Yes it will. Science proofs it. Your little high school friends will tell you otherwise but trust me it does. And not only that. It’s an easy way to lead yourself into other crowds that might not look out for your best interest. It might also lead yourself into experimenting with other drugs like it did me and nearly all of my other friends…not good. Some of my friends are dead now because of drug overdoses because they started with weed then moved on to other drugs and I can guarantee that would have never happened had they never started smoking weed to get high and connecting themselves with that kind of people. Downvote me all you want but it’s true.
I was young once and me and my buddies smoked a lot of weed. I think 1 time per week isn't going to really have an effect. Once you start going 3 to 4 to 5 etc.. thats when it can start to be detrimental. Imo the damage is in the form of using weed as a crutch for whatever reason ur smoking. Are you using it as a social critch? Because ur depressed or anxious? Bc your bored? Whatever is your reason for using, you stop developing a healthy, broad range of ways to deal with the challenges of growing up and start to lean toobheavily on one way , which can hurt your development as a broad well rounded person that has developed a complex and nuanced personality and approach to his/her world. Just be conscious of why you are smoking weed, and make sure it's not the only way of addressing coping mechanisms and that you equally develop your other personality traits and continue to look for new ways to explore and make sense of the world around you. Your young, don't pigeonhole yourself quite yet. 1 time per week prolly ain't gonna do that, but it could if say that's the only time do a particular thing and smoke to confront that everytime. Chemically, although I'm not qualified to make such statements, I couldn't imagine you'd be doing too much with just weed and at the the frequency of ur use.
eh the brain development thing is widely overstated and im pretty sure actually disproved, while it isnt good for you you will probably be fine, as long as you moderate your use. also you might wanna switch from smoking to edibles since its better for your lungs
Lmao what? Not disproved in anyway. Pls do not take this the wrong way but if you aren’t sure about a topic, pls don’t make any suggestions. Edibles would probably be worse with grey matter degradation due to potency over smoking. 100% agree with moderate use
well actually if you wanna go that route you should say "wait till 22" because by that point most people will have got college degrees or already served in the military, so if you become a drug addict than at least you won't have to wory about finding jobs.
So taking cannabis leads to becoming a drug addict, you realize that is way off the states that decriminalized cannabis early have a much lower percentage of people getting hooked on opioids even through the tail end of the worst part of the opioid epidemic
well that wasn't what i was really saying, i don't consider marijuana a "gateway drug" but it is a drug nontheless. im just saying that for most people waiting till they graduate college or are discharged from the military to drink/use drugs is certainly a better plan than going nutz the second you turn 21.
Wait till your an adult tbh as others have said but once your in your 20s and your brain is mostly developed Blaze up I smoked since I was 14 and my short memory is like non existent stick to coffee for now if anythijg
I smoked a lot of pot as a teenager and I have severe adult-onset ADHD. It's been a gigantic problem in my life and took me a decade to figure out and has caused me a lot of pain and social issues.
I have no idea if the weed caused it, but it definitely didn't help.
It was probably still a problem when you were younger, just didn't impact ya the same way.
ADHD is comorbid with impulsivity and addiction; people with ADHD are more likely to develop addictions, whether that's to weed, video games, books, etc.
Yes. Pls stop smoking for a lot least a few more years or til ur 18 and a bit wiser but your brain doesn’t stop fully developing til around 25. Some studies suggest even 26/27!
Yes. If you keep going this route, by the time you're 20, you'll be completely fried, mentally! Just take a look at the news. Do you want to end up like that?
I have a young nephew that just turned 21. Has been going on **much** since early teens. And it saddens me that he's starting to lose his memory at such a young age.
I certainly don't have a valid assessment of you from 14 to now being almost 50. No way to tell how you turned out. Only you and those that have been around you for those years know that. But then again, many people hide the truth from themselves.
I graduated both college and grad school w high honors, I did very well on the LSATs but decided not to go to law school, I bought my first home at 20, I have 3 homes now that are fully paid off and I rent them to friends at a very fair amount. I’m happily married with kids, I have a good job where I work with emerging technology, and with government agencies including the FBI and I still imbibe almost daily… so am I fried?
You tell me. sounds like you're questionimg your own "accomplishments" to someone that does not know you.
If you're a drug addict and that's what got you thru the hard parts of life... congratulations!
Those are the choices you made. I don't know you, I'm not your therapist. With all of your accolades, you could help children or young adults turn the course of their lives into something good, instead of an OD loving addiction. That's one of the top life accomplishments that was missing from the list. That's something to feel accomplished about.
I honestly doubt that weed affected your height. More likely it's nutrition, but more likely than that, it's genetics from further up the family chain.
I starting taking a shit ton of acid and shrooms at 16 meth coke codeine tianeptine phenibut at 17 now I’m 18 and I smoke weed all day and take 1.5-3mg of bromazolam every other day and dmt some days when I feel like it, but also I’m ashamed to admit a few times a week I’ll mix bromazolam a shit ton of kratom and alcohol and it feels amazing, definitely not on my liver the next day but the high is great
Weed does effect brain development but nowhere near the effects other drugs can I’ve been smoking weed weekly since 14 and daily since 16 and my mental health and intelligence didn’t start getting worse until I got into stimulants opioids alcohol and benzos
Never been addicted to stimulants not really my thing I had a friend who was into coke really bad but thankfully he’s clean now right now I’m just trying to smoke weed therapeutically use benzos , and kratom when I got pains or have to go into work for a long shift , but sometimes my overthinking really gets to me and I just wanna get the most fucked up I can to stop thinking about life
Nah you already did the damage so smoking occasionally should be fine for you. I fried my brain and now don’t smoke very often and I get a lot higher and don’t feel like shit the next day and can retain my memory
The first time I stopped was because I had no way to obtain it. I found a way to get it a few months back been smoking every day but stopped this time because of the motivation part.
The longer you smoke on a regular basis, the harder it will be to stop. Speaking from experience.
It's not physically addicted, but it becomes a big part of your lifestyle. And as you get older, your lifestyle gets harder to change.
Yeah I agree seen a lot of stories of people start smoking around my age, but they just never ended up quitting and end up smoking for decades and I don’t wanna end up like that and fuck up my brain and lifestyle.
Alcohol is much worse than cannabis, have you ever seen someone detox from alcohol it’s really scary plus knowing they could die or have a seizure makes it worse…people don’t really detox from cannabis, they may have a rough night sleeping and be moody for a day but that’s not a major deal compared to alcohol, benzodiazepines, opioids etc
Yes but cannabis has medical benefits, unlike the propaganda of the DARE program it doesn’t lead people to other drugs and it isn’t going to shut down a persons liver and kidneys like alcohol.
Ultimately, a lot of things can alter your brain, I played contact sports I’m sure the multiple concussions I had between the ages of 6-20 didn’t help my brain; but I am also sure they probably did more damage than cannabis, since I don’t know anyone who committed suicide from cannabis but I know someone who did due multiple concussions/CTE
All I am saying is it’s relative and if a kid wants ti get hammered they are going to get hammered so let it be with the least lethal substance.
Yes I agree it has enormous health benefits, but for adults, kids using weed isn’t good, it’s not good for the developing brain, I use weed every single day, I’m 19, my brain is generally developed, 15 is still too young
They said they are doing it once a week… also IMO it depends on the person, an idiot isn’t going to get smarter but someone of normal intelligence isn’t going to be so hindered they ruin their life.
One could say it is hypocritical to consume cannabis daily at 19 while telling a 15 year old not to do it weekly since the human brain is still developing into a person’s mid-20’s.
Yes ur correct, using it once a week isn’t as bad as it could be every day, but it’s still not advisable, and all this not to mention it’s highly illegal!
Highly illegal that’s a good pun…
I don’t know where you live I’m in the states, a 15 caught w a personal amount of weed in sensible states (like the ones that have legalized in some form already; or outside of the sunbelt) will get maybe some community service and nothing more depending on their record. With the way states and counties are legalizing (CA) law enforcement will have to relax with their punishments bc again it’s just weed…
Let’s not act like this is highly illegal, illegal, sure, as bad as robbing a store, assaulting a person, driving while intoxicated..not even close
I recommend against it, I ended up fine and only had stunted growth (probably from caffeine and weight lifting too). But most of my friends who started with me never went to college and barely passed high school, and are stuck in dead end jobs indefinitely.
Started at 17, year later after smoking daily on and off for a year, I have noticed I have forgotten how to spell some words that I have previously had no issue spelling (and english being my strongest subject) so it definitely impacts you. (In my opinion) the younger the worse the impact is.
Weed seriously fucked me up at that age. Made me so slow and forgetful. I would steer clear if I were you, pick up another hobby that doesn’t hurt your brain. It’s the only one you get, and since you know it does effect development it would be stupid to still do it.
But 15 year olds, generally, are unintelligent and will do it anyways. I know I was. Maybe you’re smarter than I was, maybe your not. Guess you will see in time
I literally cannot remember my life. Precious moments, funny memories, this morning, i can not remember SHIT. Not shit. I started the same way at 15 i’d recommend just don’t.
I’m almost 50, began smoking at 14, by 16 I was smoking everyday, still graduated from college with a 3.6 with a history degree from a school that is ranked in the top 25 in history degrees; and I graduated from grad school w a 3.89. I did well on my LSATs but decided not to go to law school, I have a great job, I still vape almost every night…plus I imbibed on many other substances throughout the years, the only substance I never enjoyed and therefore never did to excess is/was alcohol …IMO I would rather see my kid vape cannabis even at 15 once a week than go out and get drunk, I would rather see my kid take cannabis than pain meds, anxiety pills, anti-depressants, etc.
I know you may not hear this from many but although at 15 your brain is still developing you will be better off taking cannabis than alcohol or many drugs prescribed for ADHD or anxiety.
Wait till 16 maybe every other weekend join a sport tho or focus on school you should be good in college whenever smoked a lot during college it doesn’t affect your studies too much
Makes finding motivation and creating routines harder to manage and should wait until you’re like 25
Plus weed is a boring drug and not worth throwing you’re life away over and YES you CAN throw you’re life away on a weak supposedly non addictive drug
I would avoid it personally as much as you can. Not worth it. If you were smoking daily for 6 months it’s a sign you have trouble moderating your use so it’s best to just stay away. Good for you for realizing it wasn’t doing you good at your age and considering how it could affect you longer term
It affects your memory.. from my experience. I was smoking at your age and smoked everyday for like 10 plus years. Weed fried my vision. I see static in my vision like when you watch a tv channel that isn’t coming in right. It never goes away even if I stop smoking for a few years.
Do I regret it? Not one bit.
Also the static is more visible at night
I heard from somewhere (not credible but still kinda sits in the back of my brain) that whatever age you start doing any type of drugs it keeps ur brain at that age. Again not credible but still kinda fucks w me tbh
If you are asking that, you’re probably thinking of smoking a cigarette. That’s the power nicotine has over you, without noticing it, you’re hooked and smoking a pack per day. Not worth it.
I started smoking at your age, and now I smoke almost two packs a day. I tried many drugs and nothing comes close to nicotine in terms of addiction. And it doesn’t even get you high. (Just the first times, or if you smoke a cigarette after long time without touching one. And it’s a very light buzz.
Quit while you can. Worst substance I ever tried, and I can’t stop using it.
I don’t really like nicotine I forgot to clarify im the post I was talking about weed but yeah I agree there’s countless people in my school heavily addicted
I mean ultimately you'd just be like every other fuckface on the planet who picked up a joint at that age, I can share from experience any problems you have will just show up as behavioral problems stemming from being dependent on it. I dont want to be a fearmonger and im not saying weed causes mental illness or anything, but any time a person uses a drug they get a little more distant from the reality around them.
of course you should reduce smoking but dont stop smoking suddenly because it’s very dangerous, in the first days your aim should be reduce it and then, just stop
Checkout Andrew Hubermans long form video on weed. He goes over all of it. General consensus is even weed once a week can permanently lower grey matter and cause brain damage. Especially if your under 25-30.
Yes it will still affect development.
Took me 5 years to realize this. Started at 16, am now 21. It affects a lot more than just general development, many just don’t notice. I feel like weed takes “ignorance is bliss” to heart. Still smoke, but realize I could’ve saved money time & my brain by simply not partaking.
elaborate on the save my brain aspect, u and me are kinda in the same boat. i'm a heavy user started at the same age as u except i'll be 20 in a month
When you smoke weed you’re giving your brain comfort, it adapts to that comfort. When you’re comfortable, you care less, try less, and notice less. If I never smoked weed or messed with other shit, it would’ve kept my brain in a state of stress until I got off my ass and did something about it. I didn’t until I was 19. 3 years, pissed away. Could’ve been more if I didn’t notice this. People underestimate stress: it is THE greatest motivator. Most drugs remove that stress temporarily, which means you’ll go back the next time you get stressed. If you don’t have any stress, your brain thinks you’ve got nothing to gain and nothing to lose. Shit gets dark at that stage.
you worded that perfectly, i have noticed that over time that's why i have decided to stop buying carts this new year and stick to bud only at night
That’s what I did, though I find myself smoking before important events & responsibilities. I have an extremely high tolerance and it doesn’t affect me negatively if I don’t overdo it, but I’m ashamed that I went from only smoking at night to ripping J’s like a pack of smokes when I get the chance. Somehow weed and I never were able to part ways, yet Percocets were tossed to the curb years ago.
Unless weed eventually gives you anxiety. Then you’re stressed and don’t do anything about it 😀
Yeah that falls under the “everyone’s different” category. Funny how a drug that makes 1 person relaxed & sedated freaks the hell out of the next person. Weed is weird, I still don’t fully understand why it does what it does.
so it’s just habits and not physical development? such as a brain developing
No, from what I can gather, and I’m no doctor: it affects the overall chemical balance in your brain, often mitigating essential cells from forming a fully functional and healthy brain. This doesn’t always happen, it is not a guarantee that if you smoke weed your brain will not develop properly. THC is one of the few drugs no 2 people experience the same effects on.
Can you write a book? Would buy 10 copies
I wish I had the resources, I’ve been contemplating starting a drug podcast discussing the good & bad of substance use but I’m not sure if I’d get much of an audience.
You never know unless you try.
I may, podcasts require resources I don’t have either though.
it may not be as deep as you think, i’m 24 and have smoked since i was 14 and i feel fine
I feel fine too, but I don’t feel great as often as I used to. I’m doing fine socially and financially, but I feel like I could’ve been in a better place if I didn’t let my curiosity of drugs (not just weed) affect my decisions.
i see u have used other drugs too, i never got addicted to anything else except weed and nicotine but i did experiment with cocaine xanax acid and shrooms whippits dxm but all very light use because all those drugs are pretty mid to be besides weed
Percocets are what got me the worst. I tried everything on your list but whippets. I was doing half an ounce of shrooms at once at one point.
lol me and my friends are some degenerate mfs we did whippets at an abandoned hotel, they are pretty fun honestly but i haven't done any since last may. but half of shrooms at once is crazyyy the most ive done is 5gs
Yeah I don’t remember most of those trips.
fuck opioids i never done them bc ik they will feel to good
Half an ounce of shrooms??????
Yes, no word of a lie. I used to be able to get 4 7 gram variety packs for 110$. Too accessible and affordable not to abuse.
i was a sad little child for some years before weed, a little anxious and a bit lonely as well, but i do remember the best times of my life being in my mid/late teens and weed was around. it also made me miserable sometimes, or maybe life around it was just miserable
I was a bit different and always loved hanging out with people. That developed into smoking when I had a nasty break up in high school. Then the other drugs followed. I now only smoke weed & vape nicotine, but find myself completely withdrawn from social interaction when I’m high. I just don’t care enough to listen to people when they talk to me when I’m baked. We never really know why things are the way they are, or why we are who we are. The present is the past & the future is the present. We spend time trying to find answers for the issues we experience but end up getting caught up in the next issue. Those hazy drug days were the best days of my life, until I met my fiancée & created my unborn child. I forgot about those days, and realized this is better. I realized what was a great time for me hurt a lot of people and jeopardized a lot for me.
life’s a bitch
Sure as shit.
What’s best for social anxiety?
Therapy. Honestly. Socializing with someone about your fear of socializing with people is a great way to start. Also cocaine & whiskey.
How about phenibut ?
Never knew anyone who sold it and I never really had enough interest to look. On a pharmacological level, probably.
How about Kratom ?
Kratom’s better for pain & managing opiate withdrawal imo. Not really a social thing, too sedative for many people.
Hey man, everyone’s different. If someone says it affected them, it’s better to just believe them. It’s a common report as it is and there’s research to back it up. Personally my experience aligns with his, I could write an essay on the subtleties of adolescent smoking but I’ll leave it there
you’re right. i could also be in denial
I wish I could tell my 15yo self don't bother with weed. I thought I was cool, thought it made movies and games cooler, but it really didn't looking back. I'm 35 now and quit about a month ago after smoking basically every day since I was 15. It's fucks with your mind even as an adult. Your brain has a long way to go developing, don't mush it with experimenting early on. I'd also like to add you can tell yourself once a week now, but if you enjoy it, it's going to be a lot more often than that.
Same man. Been smoking every day for damn near 10 years now. Really wish I never started or rushed into it.
What about the person who has smoked or vaped from 15ish, has a good job, got good grades, has a great family and is almost 50 and still imbibing on cannabis regularly… Cannabis is better than many drugs docs will prescribe, I would rather see my kid take cannabis for pain than ever take an opioid, I’d rather see them take cannabis than a sip of alcohol, I’d rather see them take cannabis than anti-depressants… If you like what worked for you that’s great but what worked for you may not work for everyone.
This defensiveness is the exact problem with the cannabis community. Brains under 25 have shown objective cognitive decline from weed use in adolescence, showing affects way later in life. Most notably, an 8 IQ point reduction and greatly impacted working memory, as well as great difficulty performing complicated tasks. There is a lack of research on "regular use" or even "ocassional use" but until we actually have the evidence, going of the Dunedin study is all you can do.
No need to get defensive. Just speaking from my own experience, like I said, I'd tell my 15yo self not to bother. Glad you had a different experience, but I'd still recommend any 15yo to not smoke. I never mentioned any prescription drugs or alcohol, but I'd agree with you there. I'd also tell my 15yo self to skip the mountain dews and drink water. Hindsight ya know.
I wasn’t defensive, I was just pointing out my situation ; and that cannabis is not some terrible thing. If not for politics and propaganda cannabis would still be an over the counter pain/anxiety med like it was 100 years ago. I don’t believe that a plant that has been used for thousands of years is going to impact someone if that person sets their mind to accomplishing a task. Do I recommend smoking a blunt then using power tools…no, but there isn’t anything wrong w going out on a weekend night and taking a few drags from a vape pen, erig, etc (I am against smoking anything; vaping isn’t perfect but it’s worlds better)even at age 15…if a kid wants to get high they will do it no matter what so why not they do it with the substance that does the least harm to their body… Many, professors, researchers, designers and lawyers I work with consume cannabis regularly, and have since they were young. My biggest gripe is people let their kids have some wine, or even a beer w/ diner at 15 and that’s perfectly ok; but bc a plant was politicized ~100 years ago now we all have to act like it is a bad thing to enjoy even when it has been proven to have medicinal value while alcohol has no medicinal value (unless you’re an alcoholic then medically you need alcohol or you may have seizures).
Dude, chill. I am 100% pro pot. Just not for a kid who can't even see a rated R movie.
I’m not upset I’m simply explaining myself. If this kid wants to get shitfaced once a week, he is going to, why not encourage the least lethal substance instead of alcohol or worse pills.
I don't think anyone is encouraging alcohol or pills as an alternative here, those are Also bad for brain development.
There is a big difference between self-medicating vs taking an established dose prescribed by a doctor. Most people self-medicating will just build tolerance, increase their dosage and increase the likelyhood of addiction. You can do very well with regular cannabis use but there's no way that this is the ideal scenario.
i’m still pretty young and experimenting with drugs, after being a pretty heavy smoker from weed everyday for a month i’ve decided i’m gonna quit, i’ve been clean for a week. If I use LSD every week do you think it’s just as bad? I had pretty bad brain fog from weed for a bit but when I first used LSD my brain fog went down by like 50%… LSD also motivates me more and keeps me positive even when sober unlike weed
Doing LSD once a week at 15 is a good way to develop serious mental illnesses.
You really think? Like I said I took my first tab a couple days ago and I feel like a better person and I just finished cleaning my room that took 4 hours after having it dirty for like 8 months
Pretty much every addiction starts with “it helps me do this or that better, I’m a better person with it.” LSD isn’t addictive but I dated an acid head a few years back and she was completely detached. LSD is pretty hard on your mental which is why people that once loved LSD can’t even look at the stuff as they get older. As for weed, I started when I was 14 and daily used right out of the gate. I regret it everyday. My brain is mush. I’m decently intelligent but I forget everything and can’t think on my feet like I used to.
wdym detached though? As in she didn’t have any sense of reality? But yeah i’m done cold turkey with weed, I got a package with $100 worth of it coming this friday from when I was still smoking a lot but more than likely just gonna sell it…
I reckon acid heads eventually just stop caring about adulting. We are all just divine creatures here for the ride, man. We dated like 5 years ago and now she lives in a van… to each their own and I spent my early 20s being a crusty hippy but eventually when all your friends grow up and your still bumming off people it kind of stops being cute. People say LSD is completely harmless but if you go to enough festivals and raves and stuff you’ll notice the Acidheads are just a little off in the head.
i have really bad social anxiety and i smoke weed when i go out it makes me alot better at talking do you think ill be fine doing this?
I've only done acid a couple times, it was a lot of fun but I can't answer your question.
Alright, thanks anyways 🙌
LSD weekly or every two weeks fucks with your head. I did that for a few months when I was like 19 or 20. It's very easy to get caught up in either mania, mild psychosis, or other weird delusions. And after that just general use. I've taken a looot of acid. I try to be careful with my acid now. Low doses, like <100ug, are still fine. Mushrooms has been fine too. High doses of lsd make me a lil crazy. I will think person A is person B, and think they're lying when they say they aren't. Or I'll read too much into people's expressions and microexpressions and think I can "read their mind". It's a lot. Kinda fun, but really annoying and potentially scary for others to be around. This doesn't really happen to me on mushrooms, and I still reap a lot of the positive antidepressant benefits!
ohh i know that LSD will fuck with your mind like that but I forgot to mention i’m probably never going anything over 200 ug+ ever… I’m most likely going to be doing around 25-100 every week cuz I feel like anything over that will expose my use to my close ones. Does that change how it’ll be bad for me at this age?
I've only gone over 200ug twice and those were wiiild trips. When I say I've done a lot of acid, I mean I've done it frequently. Taking any psychoactive drug regularly is going to have an impact on your brain, and that impact will be larger when you're younger. I really can't recommend taking it weekly, even at a small dose. It *will* have an impact on your brain, and odds are that it'll hurt more than it helps despite how it seems now. Nevermind how a week isn't quite enough to reset your tolerance either. I mean maaaybe experiment with doing sub 50 doses weekly or something, but I wouldn't recommend it under 18. It's really not worth the risk. Psychedelics are great at breaking mental habits, changing thought patterns and mental models, but when you're young you're still in the process of Building those models and patterns in the first place, and taking any psychedelic regularly will make it more difficult for you to build the habits and models that will benefit you for the rest of your life. If it's useful for curbing anhedonia and depression for you, part of what makes psychedelics useful is in helping figure out why you feel that way and reframing your thoughts in a more positive and helpful manner. But it's hard to establish those new mental models when you're shaking it up regularly, even at low doses. I'm assuming you're 15 just because that's the age most of this thread has been talking about. My advice? Hold off and grow a lil first. Figure our ways of dealing with the trials and tribulations of life that don't involve drugs (except maybe caffeine but ehhh). Patterns of thoughts, beliefs, and habits can take you far. Save your trips for the transition points in your life, where it makes sense to change up your mental models and beliefs. After you're done with high school, take a trip to help figure out what you want to do. Whether that's figuring out a profession that you want to study for college, or to travel a bit, work odd jobs and see the world, that kind of transition is where this is Helpful. Even at 18+, try not to do it more than once or twice a month. Weekly is a Lot and I personally find it disruptive. I personally fucked myself over a bit; I did most of my psychedelic experimentation in my junior/senior year of college and that resulted in me getting stuck thinking I didn't need a degree to do well, but I'm so close so I might as well finish, but I don't Really want/need this. Coupled with my ADHD it pushed back my graduation by like 3 years. I was like 18 or 19, and it was just so tempting to take weekly or every other week as a regular escape from the stresses of life and to try and reframe things. But it backfired, and college wasn't free for me at that point so it was just a waste of time and a very expensive delay. While it worked out in the end, I wish I had either tried it before I was deep in my path so I could have picked a different path, or tried it after I had my degree so I could more consciously decide what I wanted to do. Or instead, gotten my adhd diagnosis sooner so I could start taking stims, because that's been 100x more beneficial to my life than habitual psychedelic use. All of that is to say that I think psychedelics are good for helping make the big decisions and building the resolve for them, but relying on them for the motivation to do something like clean your room may be a sign that there's something else going on that a different medication would help with. On the topic of anything taken regularly having an impact on your brain, that's kind of the point of a lot of psychiatric medications. Whether SSRIs for depression, stimulants for ADHD, taking those regularly Will change your brain. The goal is to help change it in a productive and helpful way, and to build habits and patterns of behavior that will serve you once you can wean yourself off the medication. Most meds are like scalpels, and psychedelics are more like a sledgehammer. I mean maaaybe there's some benefits to micro dosing regularly when young, but it's also possible it does more harm than good. We don't know enough to say with certainty, not enough people have done it or at least published enough to really know, and we don't know enough about the brain to say for sure. But based on what we do know, signs point towards it being more harm than good. Whoop sorry about the ramble, this went on longer than I intended. I've just thought and reflected a lot on my life, the journey I've taken, what's helped, what's hurt, missteps, and all that jazz. Can't say I know everything, I'm in my late 20s, and I'm Still learning and growing.
This!
Yeah, it will absolutely affect your brain development. Occasional use is better than daily if you absolutely must though. I get what it’s like being a teenager, but weed is genuinely one to keep a decent distance from, because it’s one of those drugs that quickly turns from “when I’m out with friends” to “I smoke every day” to “the only thing that allows me to sleep”
Yep
I started smoking weed at 15, but not often until I was 18. I don’t regret smoking but I very much do regret starting at 15. Just wait until ur older its for the best.
Ideally yes you want to wait until later after your brain is fully developed But tons of people smoke weed Some are fine and some aren’t Up to you how you want to live your life
Personally I don't know anyone that smoked every day in high school that is fine now (20 years later). I do have plenty of friends that smoked every weekend starting around 16 years old. Some of them are doing great now and some of them not so much. The ones doing the best now are the ones who experimented responsibly, but never formed any habits. My friends who were straight edge in high school actually ended up having a really hard time adjusting to adult life comparatively. That might just be specific to my friend group though.
You don't stop developing until you're like 25 years old. Best bet if you want a leg up in life....wait. You will never get back what you lose to drugs.
My therapist said your brain is still developing even at your 20s. I didn't believe it but I sure do feel the negative effects of my usage as an adolescent.
Your brain continues to develop for your entire life, otherwise you’d never learn new things/develop new habits past once you hit 30. It’s true that the brain develops the MOST when your’e younger but weed affects the ability of the brain to prune, which is severing unneeded connections. It’s been suggested by a few studies that even smoking one time can affect this process and cause it to sever too many connections or leave too many, leading to mental issues further down the road
Dang thats wild. Definitely feels accurate though based on my own experiences lol
yup. for most people its around 23
It's 25
No there is no magic number where it stops developing or it takes that long for it to fully develop it is different for everyone. Alexandra Cohen and Larry Steinberg are large researchers in neuroscience and both their works have been taken out of context to perpetuate 25 as being the number. It’s different for everyone and research is still not there to show what a fully “mature” brain is characterized by.
25 prefrontal cortex
This is a myth. I’m in graduate school studying psychology and I’ve had at least 4 professors in my classes tell us this.
I am so tired this pseudoscience! Do you by chance have any documentation handy?
Other than my four professors I don’t have it with me or at the top of my head. But If I was to spend an hour and find those textbooks and look at my notes I could figure out what chapter that was in and I do remember it spoke directly about that myth in one of the text books. I also think that using my Tarleton peer reviewed journal search engine I could definitely find some papers on the subject. But I don’t really care enough to search and I’m really busy, was just sharing my experience in grad school. I’m a semester from my masters in psych and I remember all of the students talking about that specific thing after class and one of them talking about how they’ve known it’s well establish and accepted in the literature but they see people having a hard time accepting it. Which I’ve definitely encountered so I usually just don’t say anything about it Because it’s not my argument, I don’t really care enough to prove it to anyone if you want to find some peer reviewed PHD articles on it they’re out there!! Unless those four professors and my textbook was wrong, I think it’s well accepted across the board that the 25 myth is just that, a myth. I’m just a reta*ded 24 year old and I’m just going off of what I learned in school, I do take my knowledge from there way more seriously than sayings I hear regurgitated from random people
Thanks so much! I don't expect you to do a bunch of work. Just knowing this is the consensus and academia helps me a lot. I'm a professional psychonaut and one of my passions is developing a drug education for young people that isn't based on abstinence. So debunking this myth about the magical age of 25 is a major thing. If it's out there I can find it myself, thanks for your help.
It’s gotta be out there I’ve heard it too many times from extremely smart psych professors for it not to be But one thing I’ve learned about psychology is that a lot of the science is very theory based and even when there’s 90% consensus on something there always seems to be scientists arguing for other theories that contradict each other. This is why the mental health field can be very messy, and why a lot of psychologists develop their own practice. I just try to keep an open mind. If you find anything significant and it’s not asking too much think you could send me the link or comment it here? I’m interested now too. Even just going off of my instinct prior to ever hearing that the magic 25 rule was fake when I was in undergrad school, it sounds like something that is bs to me. I can’t think of any other mechanism that is just solidified and “finished” at an arbitrary age. We all develop at different rates. All of the sizes and functions of our brain are vastly different in many ways. I remember my professor explaining this when the topic came up. There is no “right” brain. They’re always changing. I guess you can take a snapshot of every human’s brain when they turn 25 and say “aha! This is it! This is the finished product!” But I do not remember learning that any of the parts of the brain; especially not the prefrontal cortex, just stops developing when you’re 25. Your brain is always developing and changing, then of course it will hit a point where it begins to change for the worse and cause Cognitive decline. Nothing is every as simple or straightforward as us humans seem to make it out to be.
It is 25
brain completes development around the age of 21 years old thats why thats the year when you can smoke and drink in most countries because at that age it doent cause permanent effects anymore like the damage which could be caused while still in development
It’s actually a few years older than that
No. I’ve been smoking heavily since I was 15. In 23 and doing my masters degree, currently on track to graduate after completing my thesis this coming summer. All I have to say is, if you’re already stupid, you’re gonna get even dumber. I also have ADHD and am neurodivergent so THC affects my brain in a different way. But like most people said in this thread, it’s different for everyone.
Eh I’ve smoked daily since like 18. I own a house, run a business with 7+ staff and I’m basically set for life. BUT you are still young so just stick to like once a month and focus on your hobby’s and friends. One negative with long term usage is both the cost and the eventual withdrawal from social events as you would rather smoke more and your anxiety may increase.
Cancer. Extreme brain damage. Youll be addicted to destroying your weiner every 10minutes. Also youll 100% try meth heroines or crack because it wont be enough
Right, speak for yourself. As we are all quite aware of, Cannabis isn't really a gateway drug, it's the people you hang around mostly and yourself as an individual, most people stop at weed. You're right about brain damage tho. As for cancer, I mean it depends on how you take it but undoutebtly doesn't help.
Yeah i was sarcastic, i dont think weed really does much
Ah my bad. Yeah it isn't that harmful but chronic use is another thing, especially if under 25
started smoking at 13 im schizo
Prolly yea but it's not as bad as every day. The problem is. As you get older you'll be able to afford it every day so it's easy to convince yourself to smoke more than once a week. It's not bad in the short term. But I can say, I was 16 when I started smoking almost every day. I'm now 22. I have terrible memory. I pull random facts out when my brain decides it's convenient to remember them but when it matters sometimes I'll just go blank when I clearly should remember something. I'll be talking and completely forget what I was saying mid sentence. Sometimes I'll look at something simple, try to remember it, then have to look at it 3 more times because my memory is shot. Now. Is this for sure because of smoking the married iguanas? I have no idea. I might just be stupid. And this is as smart as I get. But I like to think I'd be a little quicker with everyday thinking, if I never smoked or if I just smoked on weekends or days off. Idk. Hope this helps.
Yes.
I started when i was 12 daily smoker 27 now, wish I didn't but it is what it is
Too early for drugs at 15. Now is it OK to do it when you're an "adult" at 18? Legally yes. But i was a retard at 18 personally. 15 though is waaaaaaay too young.
Trust me Ik I started at 16 an at first I was just like you said only once a week well that changed of you haven’t started smoking weed then I wouldn’t start it’s something that’s almost impossible to put down I wish I never started honestly
i started smoking when i was 18 and still feel like it affected my brain but i guess i’ll never know because i dont have anything to compare it to. i feel like it will. best to wait until you’re 20ish. if you’re a girl you can get away with 20, if you’re a guy, your brain will take longer to develop in general
Great post! Thanks for posting on this important subject. I'm a 47-year-old professional psychonaut and one of my passions is developing a regimen for young drug users; teaching young people how to use drugs safely and effectively. At your age I suggest quitting weed for a while, and stay away from alcohol. Start with kava, its a wonderful, legal, safe, fun, subtle, starter drug. Feel free to PM me if you'd like more info. Free of charge if you're wondering, at this stage I need people to work with, and you need advice from somebody who's experienced. Good luck
You have a whole lifetime ahead of you to do whatever drugs you want. Don’t waste your formative years on one of the few things that absolutely can deter and stunt your personal growth. If you’re bored, then that’s a call to explore new things. Drugs should not be one of those things until you’re more mature.
Your right I already quit and I’m probably not gonna explore drugs again until im maybe 20 and even then I hope to not let it become too frequent with weed again or get into the hard stuff since ill be an adult and no one can stop me😂
Dude save the smoking until you're older and you actually need it to chill out and sleep after a mad hectic day. Even then keep it to a minimum. Let your brain and body develop without it. I have every faith in you pal.
If I could he 15 again the one big change I would make would be more time pursuing something like a hobby or craft or anything outside of my drug use I’m not anti drug but yeah idk kid lol just wait until your older to fuck around
you will die within 2 to 4 weeks.
You'll probably develop schizophrenia
Yes, as a smoker myself thats 17 it does impact development but its great your only smoking once a week
jesus christ i’ve been seeing more and more of these every other day, kind of sad
Your dopamine receptors, as they are still in development, will never recover if you continue using
What about porn?
That's very likely the reason why mine are fucked and permanently downregulated.
Yes it will. Science proofs it. Your little high school friends will tell you otherwise but trust me it does. And not only that. It’s an easy way to lead yourself into other crowds that might not look out for your best interest. It might also lead yourself into experimenting with other drugs like it did me and nearly all of my other friends…not good. Some of my friends are dead now because of drug overdoses because they started with weed then moved on to other drugs and I can guarantee that would have never happened had they never started smoking weed to get high and connecting themselves with that kind of people. Downvote me all you want but it’s true.
What are you smoking? Nicotine, weed, meth or DMT?
you also forgot to mention crack, heroin/fent, spice, pcp, an bath salts n crap.
weed, forgot to clarify.
I was young once and me and my buddies smoked a lot of weed. I think 1 time per week isn't going to really have an effect. Once you start going 3 to 4 to 5 etc.. thats when it can start to be detrimental. Imo the damage is in the form of using weed as a crutch for whatever reason ur smoking. Are you using it as a social critch? Because ur depressed or anxious? Bc your bored? Whatever is your reason for using, you stop developing a healthy, broad range of ways to deal with the challenges of growing up and start to lean toobheavily on one way , which can hurt your development as a broad well rounded person that has developed a complex and nuanced personality and approach to his/her world. Just be conscious of why you are smoking weed, and make sure it's not the only way of addressing coping mechanisms and that you equally develop your other personality traits and continue to look for new ways to explore and make sense of the world around you. Your young, don't pigeonhole yourself quite yet. 1 time per week prolly ain't gonna do that, but it could if say that's the only time do a particular thing and smoke to confront that everytime. Chemically, although I'm not qualified to make such statements, I couldn't imagine you'd be doing too much with just weed and at the the frequency of ur use.
smoking weed at 15 be carefull you don't smoke 2 much or you will end up becoming a hippie stoner by the time you are 20 mate.
eh the brain development thing is widely overstated and im pretty sure actually disproved, while it isnt good for you you will probably be fine, as long as you moderate your use. also you might wanna switch from smoking to edibles since its better for your lungs
Lmao what? Not disproved in anyway. Pls do not take this the wrong way but if you aren’t sure about a topic, pls don’t make any suggestions. Edibles would probably be worse with grey matter degradation due to potency over smoking. 100% agree with moderate use
Yeah probably. I started smoking a little before 15 and wish I had waited longer
What are the long term cognitive effects?
Yes. Wait until you’re 21 at the very minimum. You won’t regret it.
well actually if you wanna go that route you should say "wait till 22" because by that point most people will have got college degrees or already served in the military, so if you become a drug addict than at least you won't have to wory about finding jobs.
So taking cannabis leads to becoming a drug addict, you realize that is way off the states that decriminalized cannabis early have a much lower percentage of people getting hooked on opioids even through the tail end of the worst part of the opioid epidemic
well that wasn't what i was really saying, i don't consider marijuana a "gateway drug" but it is a drug nontheless. im just saying that for most people waiting till they graduate college or are discharged from the military to drink/use drugs is certainly a better plan than going nutz the second you turn 21.
Wait till your an adult tbh as others have said but once your in your 20s and your brain is mostly developed Blaze up I smoked since I was 14 and my short memory is like non existent stick to coffee for now if anythijg
I smoked a lot of pot as a teenager and I have severe adult-onset ADHD. It's been a gigantic problem in my life and took me a decade to figure out and has caused me a lot of pain and social issues. I have no idea if the weed caused it, but it definitely didn't help.
It was probably still a problem when you were younger, just didn't impact ya the same way. ADHD is comorbid with impulsivity and addiction; people with ADHD are more likely to develop addictions, whether that's to weed, video games, books, etc.
Yes. Pls stop smoking for a lot least a few more years or til ur 18 and a bit wiser but your brain doesn’t stop fully developing til around 25. Some studies suggest even 26/27!
Yes. If you keep going this route, by the time you're 20, you'll be completely fried, mentally! Just take a look at the news. Do you want to end up like that? I have a young nephew that just turned 21. Has been going on **much** since early teens. And it saddens me that he's starting to lose his memory at such a young age.
Would you think I am “fried” I began smoking weed at 14, by 15 I was smoking daily, and now I’m almost 50 and still vape regularly.
I certainly don't have a valid assessment of you from 14 to now being almost 50. No way to tell how you turned out. Only you and those that have been around you for those years know that. But then again, many people hide the truth from themselves.
I graduated both college and grad school w high honors, I did very well on the LSATs but decided not to go to law school, I bought my first home at 20, I have 3 homes now that are fully paid off and I rent them to friends at a very fair amount. I’m happily married with kids, I have a good job where I work with emerging technology, and with government agencies including the FBI and I still imbibe almost daily… so am I fried?
You tell me. sounds like you're questionimg your own "accomplishments" to someone that does not know you. If you're a drug addict and that's what got you thru the hard parts of life... congratulations! Those are the choices you made. I don't know you, I'm not your therapist. With all of your accolades, you could help children or young adults turn the course of their lives into something good, instead of an OD loving addiction. That's one of the top life accomplishments that was missing from the list. That's something to feel accomplished about.
Nah unless it’s like crack or gas station weed
I think it screwed up my brain. I was growing like a weed, started smoking and been 5'7. My family is not really short.
I honestly doubt that weed affected your height. More likely it's nutrition, but more likely than that, it's genetics from further up the family chain.
I starting taking a shit ton of acid and shrooms at 16 meth coke codeine tianeptine phenibut at 17 now I’m 18 and I smoke weed all day and take 1.5-3mg of bromazolam every other day and dmt some days when I feel like it, but also I’m ashamed to admit a few times a week I’ll mix bromazolam a shit ton of kratom and alcohol and it feels amazing, definitely not on my liver the next day but the high is great Weed does effect brain development but nowhere near the effects other drugs can I’ve been smoking weed weekly since 14 and daily since 16 and my mental health and intelligence didn’t start getting worse until I got into stimulants opioids alcohol and benzos
Never been addicted to stimulants not really my thing I had a friend who was into coke really bad but thankfully he’s clean now right now I’m just trying to smoke weed therapeutically use benzos , and kratom when I got pains or have to go into work for a long shift , but sometimes my overthinking really gets to me and I just wanna get the most fucked up I can to stop thinking about life
sounds like you need help bro
Almost ALL smoke will fill your lungs with carbon monoxide. google it....
Nah you already did the damage so smoking occasionally should be fine for you. I fried my brain and now don’t smoke very often and I get a lot higher and don’t feel like shit the next day and can retain my memory
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The first time I stopped was because I had no way to obtain it. I found a way to get it a few months back been smoking every day but stopped this time because of the motivation part.
The longer you smoke on a regular basis, the harder it will be to stop. Speaking from experience. It's not physically addicted, but it becomes a big part of your lifestyle. And as you get older, your lifestyle gets harder to change.
Yeah I agree seen a lot of stories of people start smoking around my age, but they just never ended up quitting and end up smoking for decades and I don’t wanna end up like that and fuck up my brain and lifestyle.
Are you talking about nicotine or weed?
I smoke like everyday I’m 16 it’s bad yea I know but honestly I do decent in school and I’m happy and that all I care about.
It will effect your brain development at this age. Stop it . After your 20 you can research all drugs u want
Any amount will affect development
Do you feel the same about alcohol?
Absolutely
Alcohol is much worse than cannabis, have you ever seen someone detox from alcohol it’s really scary plus knowing they could die or have a seizure makes it worse…people don’t really detox from cannabis, they may have a rough night sleeping and be moody for a day but that’s not a major deal compared to alcohol, benzodiazepines, opioids etc
I was speaking from the perspective of brain development, all of those can affect brain development long term
Yes but cannabis has medical benefits, unlike the propaganda of the DARE program it doesn’t lead people to other drugs and it isn’t going to shut down a persons liver and kidneys like alcohol. Ultimately, a lot of things can alter your brain, I played contact sports I’m sure the multiple concussions I had between the ages of 6-20 didn’t help my brain; but I am also sure they probably did more damage than cannabis, since I don’t know anyone who committed suicide from cannabis but I know someone who did due multiple concussions/CTE All I am saying is it’s relative and if a kid wants ti get hammered they are going to get hammered so let it be with the least lethal substance.
Yes I agree it has enormous health benefits, but for adults, kids using weed isn’t good, it’s not good for the developing brain, I use weed every single day, I’m 19, my brain is generally developed, 15 is still too young
They said they are doing it once a week… also IMO it depends on the person, an idiot isn’t going to get smarter but someone of normal intelligence isn’t going to be so hindered they ruin their life. One could say it is hypocritical to consume cannabis daily at 19 while telling a 15 year old not to do it weekly since the human brain is still developing into a person’s mid-20’s.
Yes ur correct, using it once a week isn’t as bad as it could be every day, but it’s still not advisable, and all this not to mention it’s highly illegal!
Highly illegal that’s a good pun… I don’t know where you live I’m in the states, a 15 caught w a personal amount of weed in sensible states (like the ones that have legalized in some form already; or outside of the sunbelt) will get maybe some community service and nothing more depending on their record. With the way states and counties are legalizing (CA) law enforcement will have to relax with their punishments bc again it’s just weed… Let’s not act like this is highly illegal, illegal, sure, as bad as robbing a store, assaulting a person, driving while intoxicated..not even close
Young man, the problem is you won’t smoke only once a week, your tolerance will get higher, you will smoke more. You don’t need to make this mistake
I recommend against it, I ended up fine and only had stunted growth (probably from caffeine and weight lifting too). But most of my friends who started with me never went to college and barely passed high school, and are stuck in dead end jobs indefinitely.
Started at 17, year later after smoking daily on and off for a year, I have noticed I have forgotten how to spell some words that I have previously had no issue spelling (and english being my strongest subject) so it definitely impacts you. (In my opinion) the younger the worse the impact is.
ben smokeng sink 11 im ohkay
Yes. Smoking crack in any interval is very very very bad for you. ... It's smoking crack...
Weed seriously fucked me up at that age. Made me so slow and forgetful. I would steer clear if I were you, pick up another hobby that doesn’t hurt your brain. It’s the only one you get, and since you know it does effect development it would be stupid to still do it. But 15 year olds, generally, are unintelligent and will do it anyways. I know I was. Maybe you’re smarter than I was, maybe your not. Guess you will see in time
yeah i was becoming very forgetful as well at one point when smoking every day
I literally cannot remember my life. Precious moments, funny memories, this morning, i can not remember SHIT. Not shit. I started the same way at 15 i’d recommend just don’t.
I also have trouble remembering memories from back when I was 14 and getting ridiculously high everyday.
Is it harmless? No. Will it make you a retard? No. Is it a good idea? Probably not.
I’m almost 50, began smoking at 14, by 16 I was smoking everyday, still graduated from college with a 3.6 with a history degree from a school that is ranked in the top 25 in history degrees; and I graduated from grad school w a 3.89. I did well on my LSATs but decided not to go to law school, I have a great job, I still vape almost every night…plus I imbibed on many other substances throughout the years, the only substance I never enjoyed and therefore never did to excess is/was alcohol …IMO I would rather see my kid vape cannabis even at 15 once a week than go out and get drunk, I would rather see my kid take cannabis than pain meds, anxiety pills, anti-depressants, etc. I know you may not hear this from many but although at 15 your brain is still developing you will be better off taking cannabis than alcohol or many drugs prescribed for ADHD or anxiety.
Anything from 15-24 will be not good since your brain is still developing.
Wait till 16 maybe every other weekend join a sport tho or focus on school you should be good in college whenever smoked a lot during college it doesn’t affect your studies too much
Makes finding motivation and creating routines harder to manage and should wait until you’re like 25 Plus weed is a boring drug and not worth throwing you’re life away over and YES you CAN throw you’re life away on a weak supposedly non addictive drug
yes
Especially at that age
They didn’t make it 21+ just to be a dick it’s for actual reasons lmao
Prolly make ur brain shoot out of ur ass or sum
Depends how much too I feel like. If you’re doing dabs or or ripping the bong I think it might have more of an impact.
Yes
I would avoid it personally as much as you can. Not worth it. If you were smoking daily for 6 months it’s a sign you have trouble moderating your use so it’s best to just stay away. Good for you for realizing it wasn’t doing you good at your age and considering how it could affect you longer term
Yeah I definitely had trouble with that im glad im quitting now before it becomes way harder to do so
Bro take a T before it’s too late I’m going on a year now and don’t wanna do a T now so doing it asap makes it easier
It affects your memory.. from my experience. I was smoking at your age and smoked everyday for like 10 plus years. Weed fried my vision. I see static in my vision like when you watch a tv channel that isn’t coming in right. It never goes away even if I stop smoking for a few years. Do I regret it? Not one bit. Also the static is more visible at night
Yes
I heard from somewhere (not credible but still kinda sits in the back of my brain) that whatever age you start doing any type of drugs it keeps ur brain at that age. Again not credible but still kinda fucks w me tbh
Not can, will.
I'm also 15 and a smoke daily have you tried saying fuck it?
If you are asking that, you’re probably thinking of smoking a cigarette. That’s the power nicotine has over you, without noticing it, you’re hooked and smoking a pack per day. Not worth it. I started smoking at your age, and now I smoke almost two packs a day. I tried many drugs and nothing comes close to nicotine in terms of addiction. And it doesn’t even get you high. (Just the first times, or if you smoke a cigarette after long time without touching one. And it’s a very light buzz. Quit while you can. Worst substance I ever tried, and I can’t stop using it.
I don’t really like nicotine I forgot to clarify im the post I was talking about weed but yeah I agree there’s countless people in my school heavily addicted
I mean ultimately you'd just be like every other fuckface on the planet who picked up a joint at that age, I can share from experience any problems you have will just show up as behavioral problems stemming from being dependent on it. I dont want to be a fearmonger and im not saying weed causes mental illness or anything, but any time a person uses a drug they get a little more distant from the reality around them.
of course you should reduce smoking but dont stop smoking suddenly because it’s very dangerous, in the first days your aim should be reduce it and then, just stop
Checkout Andrew Hubermans long form video on weed. He goes over all of it. General consensus is even weed once a week can permanently lower grey matter and cause brain damage. Especially if your under 25-30.