To the Editor:

Encourage teens to stay away from pot. Just because it has become legal doesn’t make it right or smart to use it. Its effect to children and teens brain development is damaging even when used occasionally.

Teens who smoke pot daily are 60 percent less likely to finish high school or get a university degree than their weed-free peers, according to a high-profile study published in September in the Lancet.

The researchers, mainly from Australia, looked at outcomes from three long-term studies conducted in Australia and New Zealand. They compared participants’ life status at age 30 to their patterns of marijuana use before age 17 (never, less than monthly, monthly or more, weekly or more, or daily).

Compared to people who had never used cannabis, those who were daily users before age 17 had an 18 times greater chance of becoming cannabis-dependent. They were eight times more likely to use other illicit drugs in adulthood, and seven times more likely to attempt suicide, according to and article in the Globe and Mail.

Mike Hansen

Mt. Vernon