Social Media and Cannabis Use

I recently ran across a social media meme that pictures some cannabis, along with this message: negative effects of smoking weed include, less weed. It’s one of many weed-friendly social media posts that researchers say are influencing teenagers and their attitudes on cannabis. In a new survey from Washington State University, researchers found that teens are seeing a lot of positive cannabis messages on social media. And, those messages do influence attitudes on cannabis use. Author of the study, Jessica Willoughby, says this: “Youth, in particular, have really grown up bombarded with cannabis information compared to previous generations. We found that they were seeing more positive messages about using cannabis and a lot less about the risks.” She reports that teens and college students who saw more positive messages were more likely to say they intended to use the drug. In spite of this, we believe that parents have tremendous influence, and we need to exercise that influence starting when our kids are young.