Smoking pot makes you age faster and leads to birth defects in your future kids, study suggests

Smoking marijuana can alter a person’s DNA, speeding up aging and causing birth defects in future children.

The drug has skyrocketed in popularity over the past decade. It is now legal recreationally in 24 US states and daily use of cannabis has surpassed that of alcohol.

But new findings have warned of the dangerous health consequences, including faster aging, an increased risk of cancer and fertility problems.

Researchers from the University of Western Australia looked at more than 50 global studies on the effects of cannabis use on the body and said the surprising statistics should “reframe the conversation around cannabis legalisation”.

Co-author Dr. Stuart Reece said: ‘This new research shows how genetic damage from cannabis use can be passed on from generation to generation. This should reframe the discussion around the legalization of cannabis from a personal choice to a choice that may involve several future generations.”

They say premature aging is one of the most common effects of marijuana and a recent study found that long-term users aged 30 showed that their biological age was 30 percent higher.

The study involved 154 participants from a small town in the southeastern US, who provided blood samples that provided two indices of epigenetic aging from age 13 to 29 and at age 30.

The blood tests, which measured chemical tags on DNA, showed an increased risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), type 2 diabetes, ischemic heart disease, COPD and lung cancer.

Study authors say These age-related health problems are ‘extremely concerning’, and even more so as other research bodies have shown that certain conditions can be passed on to future generations due to irreversible DNA damage.

They point to strong evidence – drawn from extensive US and European studies – linking cannabis to birth defects.

Along with cardiovascular, limb and gastrointestinal abnormalities, e.gother studies in humans and rodents ‘show that adult cannabis exposure is associated with the incidence of autism and cerebral processing problems in children exposed prenatally.’

Additionally, childhood cancers have been linked to cannabis use among parents.

A Duke Health study found that prenatal cannabis use was associated with an increase in central nervous system tumors, while a study in rodents found that paternal consumption of marijuana before conception altered the offspring’s brain development.

The University of Western Australia researchers also point to a ‘high rate of known fetal loss’, with some studies suggesting that marijuana use can cause miscarriages and stillbirths.

According to research funded by the National Institutes of Health, women who use marijuana during pregnancy have a 2.3 times greater risk of stillbirth.

In terms of cancer risk among smokers and their descendants, the authors say ‘hHistorically, the link between cancer and cannabis has been controversial.”

This is because “different results in published studies can be attributed to several factors, including multiple exposures (including tobacco), differences in study design, and the rapid emergence of cannabis potency.”

However, recent studies suggest that using marijuana for a long period of time may increase the risk of cancer in adults. especially cancer of the lungs, head and neck.

“The literature on cannabis and testicular cancer is almost uniformly positive and has a relative risk of approximately 2.6-fold,” the authors add.

Federal research has shown that cannabis use is growing, especially among Americans under the age of 30

They say the effect of marijuana “can be quite rapid, as the average age of exposure can be about 20 years and the average age of occurrence of testicular cancer is only 31 years.”

The evidence is not clear how much cannabis use can cause long-term damage.

In summary, the authors of their report, published in Addiction Biology, describe the ‘current era’ as a ‘turning point’.

They emphasize that the ‘new deeply insightful studies’ should serve as a ‘trigger’ for change.

Because legal weed is more powerful than ever and there is little regulation, the authors say the health consequences could be more catastrophic.

The findings come just months after the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) proposed lowering marijuana’s legal classification.

The plan is to move it from schedule 1, which has the greatest potential for abuse with drugs like heroin and ecstasy, to schedule 3, alongside ketamine and some anabolic steroids.

Schedule 3 drugs are still controlled substances and subject to rules and regulations, and people who traffic them without authorization may still face federal criminal charges.

Recreational marijuana is legal in 24 states, although others have legalized it for medicinal purposes only

However, if enforced, this realignment will not automatically legalize marijuana for the entire US.

Recreational marijuana is currently legal in 24 states, and 13 states allow limited medical use.

As the substance becomes legal in more states, use and addiction are also becoming more common.

For example, an NIH-funded study found that marijuana use among young adults reached a record high of one in twelve in 2021.

Rates rose the most in states like California, which legalized recreational cannabis in 2018.