Effects of Drug Use on Adolescent Development?

[France]

I'm doing a 45 minute presentation on this topic in class, and so far all the information I've found reeks of bias...

I was wondering if there are any studies/articles that show some hint of positive effects, even if self reported, of drug use in adolescence? I'm honestly of the school of thought that the adolescent mind is still developing at that stage, and that excessive drug use might hinder it's progress in some way shape or form.

I also believe, however, that responsible drug use at this stage might lead to fulfilling spiritual and emotional experiences, and would like to find information to support this.

Any help is appreciated!

P.S. I'm sorry if this is the wrong section, it seemed to fit from the description.

 

[rickolasnice]

^ Your best bet is to find individual reports from people who are well into their 20's (or 30's, 40's, etc..) that used drugs responsibly and could tell you first hand that it helped them in whatever way..

Good luck.

 

[mecaib]

You should look into myelin, aka white matter. Drug use by adolescents can hinder myelin growth, leading to psychiatric disorders later in life. Your presentation should, as you already know, be as well-balanced as possible. Since myelin plays such a large role mental health, it's a subject which should not be overlooked.

 

[leungkachong]

Likely, most drugs have similarly minimal side effects from responsible drug use (barring secondary effects from overdoses, excessive use/addiction resulting in prefrontal (ventromedial) and mesocortical dopaminergic (VTA->N.Ac) dysregulation and it's psychological effects... oh, and side-effects such as endocarditis from unsanitary IV use, cardiac hypertrophy/myopathy and disdendation of the heart from heavy use of stimulants, etc, etc, etc....)

There is probably one major exception to this. That would be drugs which have (probably almost any important) endocrinergic activity. The developmental changes which occur during development really only get one chance to happen (...at best there is a critical period)! Environmentally persistant toxins which are not even that potent 'pharmacologically' at endocrine cells still cause gross physical and neurological malformation (anti-testosteronergic plastic by-products and increased hermaphroditism, urogenitary malformations, reduced masculine play and penis size any)? I've always wondered about whether chronic exposure to opioids during adolescence and it's effects on plasma testosterone.

 

[blobbymahn]

I used to take a large amount of MDMA every weekend from the age of around 16 to 19. I genuinely believe that this changed my life, not in a bad way as such - but definitely made some changes. I'm quite different to my school friends who didn't choose this path that I spent all my time with.

However, it is impossible to know how I would have turned out if I hadn't and I'm happy now so I don't regret a thing

 

[ABCDFG I Ate The E]

I used to take a large amount of MDMA every weekend from the age of around 16 to 19. I genuinely believe that this changed my life, not in a bad way as such - but definitely made some changes. I'm quite different to my school friends who didn't choose this path that I spent all my time with.

However, it is impossible to know how I would have turned out if I hadn't and I'm happy now so I don't regret a thing

same story almost here already, i'm only 17 but used mdma over 100 times.

i can feel some kind of difference.

 

[weekend addiction]

I smoked a lot of pot and tried just about every drug I could find in high school. Now I'm well-adjusted, make A's and B's in college, and only use cannabis occasionally. Many people my age get trashed every weekend but I have out grown that phase in my life. I'm glad I got fucked up in high school a lot because now that I'm in college I am honestly ready to move on. I've been there done that and got the t-shirt. Being sober is a bit of a trip. I don't think about hard drugs ever and I have no dependency issues. Hell I don't even use caffeine on a daily basis!

 

[MrYuck]

It might be interesting for you to discuss some of the drugs society has considered more "benign". I'm not sure if there have been many studies done on adolescent use of caffeine and long-term affects for example, but it would be interesting to bring up.

To use the myelin example, would a prescription for Ritalin given to a 12 year old hinder development more then a single dose of MDMA?

My guess is certainly not.

Essentially, I think it's funny (and not in a ha-ha way) that society demonizes using certain drugs and pushes others in such a major way. In terms of brain development, it makes sense to me that repeated use of any psychoactive effects long-term damage more than any single use of a particular chemical.

 

[psychomimetic]

I had a post partially typed up and accidently deleted it, which is a bitch, so I'm just going to summarize the first bit here and then finish the post. If you want further info like what drugs I used during the time period in question or anything else just ask and I'll elaborate.

Anyway, my point was that DXM played a positive, perhaps lifesaving role in my life during middle and the beginning of high school. It also played a negative role, but not an extremly negative one. Anyway, for various reasons, I'm taking a 3-5 year dissassociative break right now. During that time period I was bi-polar, my behaviour was alternativly very violent, very manic, and very depressed. I used quite a few other drugs at the time, but I think DXM is the one that really helped, partially because I've read about dissassociatives helping bi-polar disorder.

Basically the DXM really, really chilled me out. In middle school I was, as I said, very violent, but by the beginning of high school I was quite chilled out and not very violent.

In 9th grade I started using psychedelics (I had previously tripped on diphenhydramine, datura, DXM and pcp), and they also truly helped me a lot. I became a vegetarian, which is a choice I never would have made before drug use and which I still am extremly happy with. During 9th grade I used DOM, DOB, LSD, mushrooms and mescaline. I also continued using drugs I had done before (datura, dxm, benzos, opiates, etc.) and started using a few new ones. By the end of 9th grade I was an absolute pacifist, which I still am, and I was more or less an anarcho-socialist, which I still am to some degree.

So that's pretty much how drugs had a positive effect on my adolescence. I truly believe that without DXM I might be dead right now, and I definitly would have died early. I used to live with the belief that one day I would kill someone else and perhaps myself. Now I don't kill anything, including insects, and I don't see myself ever doing so. Drugs had negative effects on me, but they also did me a lot of good.

By the way I'm still a drug user, but not addicted to anything except caffeine and cannabis. I use opiates once every week or two, sometimes twice a week depending on availability. I don't drink or do benzos due to addiction and emotional problems and I don't do meth for those reasons and because of brain damage. I still love hallucinogens but I haven't used them for a while, I plan on tripping again within the next month. I also do adderall 2-4 times per month, and I occaisionally do another drug. I'm fairly happy though, definitly more so then I was back then.

I think, generally speaking, that drug use during adolescence is a bad idea, although I think it depends on the drug to some degree, and I don't think it usually turns out badly.