The Teenage Mind

The Marijuana Bill and Youth

Jann Gumbiner, Ph.D. — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:16:32 +0000

City councils are cracking down on pot dispensaries. The city of Dana Point subpoenaed the patient lists from all of its local dispensaries. This decision was upheld by the Orange County courts. Is this a violation of doctor-patient privileged communication? Is this a matter for the ACLU?

Proposition 215, The California Compassionate Use Law was designed to provide relief for extremely ill patients. However, it has resulted in liberal prescribing of 215 cards and lines of young people outside dispensaries. Any minor reporting ADHD symptoms, anxiety, or depression can obtain a 215 card.

Last week, the California State Assembly listened to hours of testimony on Assembly Bill 390 (AB 390), the Marijuana Control, Regulation, and Education bill sponsored by Tom Ammiano. I just took a look at it and you can, too, at http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/members/a13/. The bill itself is 44 pages long but what it attempts to do is "create a regulatory structure similar to that used for beer, wine and liquor, permitting taxed sales to adults while barring sales to or possession by those under 21," according to the Sacramento Bee (www.sacbee.com).

So, I am trying to anticipate how this would play out for minors. Would this make marijuana more or less available? Would this enhance its appeal? If regulated like cigarettes, would Marlboro, for example, make a huge commercial profit, put small growers out of use, and start a legal fund to fight lung cancer caused by pot? Would the FDA measure and control THC? And...finally, if marijuana becomes mainstream, will it simply become boring and lose its appeal to rebellious teens? Lots of questions and few answers. Please help me out, dear readers.

As a parent, I ask myself, "what are the dangers to teens?" And, what are the likely scenarios? If pot is still illegal to anyone under 21, how will teens get it? I think the most likely scenario is the same as beer and cigarettes. Older brothers and sisters, with IDs, will legally buy packaged marijuana cigarettes at gas stations and share them with younger ones on Friday night parties. As a parent, I ask myself, "how do I feel about this?" And... after a little thought, I actually feel better knowing my child is with trusted friends, ingesting measured substances than on a corner at night buying an illegal substance from a stranger.
How do you feel?

How Does Your Teen Cope?

Jann Gumbiner, Ph.D. — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:08:29 +0000

I thought I would share with you the parts of my book, Adolescent Assessment, that readers found the most interesting. One of the most popular topics was defense mechanisms. Anna Freud (1958), Sigmund's daughter, believed people defended themselves against anxiety with defense mechanisms. As you may have learned in Introductory Psychology, Freudians believe internal conflicts cause anxiety. To reduce this anxiety, people employ psychological defenses.

After many years of observing children, adolescents, and adults, and despite my extremely rigorous scientific training, I've concluded there is some merit to Freudian observations. While I don't believe Sigmund Freud was God and would never call myself a Freudian, I do believe he was a very smart man and an astute observer. I mean what parent of a small child can deny oral, anal, and phallic stages?

But, what Anna Freud called "defenses," I would call coping styles. Rather than a series of ego conflicts to resolve, I think children are born with temperaments and these temperaments develop into coping styles. Take for example, regression. Regression is common behavior in children and teens. A preschooler who loses a nanny may return to wetting his bed. A young adult struggling for independence may return to live with parents several times before becoming fully self-reliant. How about denial? Teens are experts at denial. They deny their very mortality. When I was a teen, I never thought I would get in a car accident. That only happened to other people. Teens also think they don't need contraception or won't get STD's. Many of my college students told me that they don't even talk about protection or STDs with their partners. They just assume this won't happen.

Withdrawal and avoidance effectively reduce social anxiety, at least in the short term. For many shy teens, it is much easier to interact with the computer than to go to a party. By rationalizing things, teens can explain away anything. It used to be that the dog ate the home work. Today homework goes undone because the printer broke. Displacement is a great way of blaming others for one's own behavior. Teenagers are always angry at their parents. Everything that is wrong in the world is their parents fault, e.g. war, poverty, injustice. After being blamed for all of the world's injustices, I simply told my son, "I wish I was that important or that powerful. I am just one small person." Asceticism is probably my favorite. This monk-like behavior is especially common in college students. Ascetics have no physical needs. They can stay up all night studying and never need to sleep or eat.

Not all coping styles are maladaptive. In fact, some are very adaptive. Take sublimation, for example, channeling anger into a basketball game may be a very effective coping mechanism. And each coping style is only maladaptive when impairing social or occupational functioning. Everyone feels like being alone sometimes. But, one client was so shy she withdrew from school, shut herself up in her room, became school phobic, stopped going to school and developed a bad case of colitis. Now, as an adult, she can't leave the house to go to the grocery store. So, how does a professional determine when a coping style has become maladaptive? One way is when withdrawing to the bedroom is interfering with daily life, like going to school. Another way to judge the clinical severity of a symptom, is to assess frequency, intensity, and duration. How often does it happen? How strong is the problem behavior? And, how long has it been going on? Obviously, staying home with Ben and Jerry's on an occasional Friday night is very different than daily sobbing oneself to sleep.

To wrap up, teens cope in some interesting ways that are similar to what Anna Freud called defense mechanisms: regression, denial, withdrawal, rationalization, displacement, asceticism, and sublimation. Based on many years experience, I think that these coping styles evolve from inborn temperaments rather than ego conflicts. Shy children tend to withdraw. But, coping styles are neither life sentences nor necessarily maladaptive. A shy child can become a confident adult.

That's it for today. I took on Freudian defenses from a developmental and social psychological perspective. Next time, I will take on the Freudian concept of catharsis. Is catharsis real? Stay tuned.

Freud, A. (1958). The ego and mechanisms of defense. New York: International Universities Press.

What is a "Normal" Teenager in the Age of High Tech?

Jann Gumbiner, Ph.D. — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 19:22:33 +0000

In California, you can get a license to operate an automobile (a lethal weapon, as far as I am concerned) at 16, vote and die for your country at 18, but you can’t buy a beer until 21. Daily, teenagers are told, “grow up, stop acting like a baby,” and “no…don’t do that, you aren’t old enough.” When does a teen become an adult? Or, more importantly, if not yet an adult, what is expected of teens in the age of high tech? Both teens and parents are confused.

One way to think about adolescent development is in terms of developmental tasks. A term originally coined by Conger, developmental tasks are age appropriate, social expectations required to make the transition from childhood to adulthood. Developmental tasks vary from culture to culture and from time to time but some of them are universal. They include: achieving independence from parents, adjusting to sexual maturation, maintaining cooperative relationships with peers, selecting and preparing for a vocation, and developing a sense of identity. When you stop to think about it, there is more rapid physical and psychological change taking place during adolescence than at any other stage in life.

Becoming an adult is not easy. In developing a sense of identity, a teen may try on several before finding the identity that fits. This explains girls who dye their hair orange, then purple. They are experimenting. Teens fight with their parents. This is a way to separate from their parents and establish their independence. They may not know what they want but they know what they don’t want. They don’t want to be like their parents. Unfortunately, many parents take this push away from them personally.

Peer acceptance is crucial to most teens. But how is a young, inexperienced person supposed to navigate the delicate balance of competing for acceptance to a prestigious college and still being liked by their close friends and competitors? When you stop to think of all the difficult psychological transitions that adolescents complete in becoming adults, in our very competitive and individualistic culture, it is very impressive. And, often they make these changes on their own with little support or direction from village elders. Of course, they make mistakes. In simpler societies, fathers’ apprenticed their own sons to become farmers like them and take over the family farm. Or, girls had large extended families with mothers, aunts, and grandmothers who helped them give birth. Roles were defined. People knew what was expected of them. It is no longer like this. Unfortunately, too many young people to off to college and feel they have to find their way all alone.

I find that thinking in terms of developmental tasks, is helpful to me clinically. For example, the definition of addiction, substance abuse, and mental disorder is “social or occupational impairment.” In an adult, this is pretty straightforward. It means they can’t keep a job or stay in a relationship. But what does it mean in a teen? Well, their occupation is school and their social relationships are friends. So, a very clear indicator that something is wrong is when a young person’s grades go down and they change friends. Also, withdrawing and spending a lot of time alone may be a concern. Once a child leaves home and goes off to college, parents often don’t know what their kids are doing. But good grades are an indicator that the teen is making a smooth adjustment.

Some teen problems are difficult to diagnose. How does normal acting out differ from serious rebellion? When does binge drinking move from being fun with friends and develop into chronic alcoholism? Which kid tries stealing a candy bar, gets caught and stops? And who ends up with a record in the legal system? These are all very delicate and subtle decisions that our kids make. For example, some college students sell pot to help finance their education and other ones get caught and have a felony on their record. Also, intervening is very delicate because confronting a rebellious teen may push them toward further rebellion.

The road to adulthood is bumpy and what parents expect from their children is often ambiguous. Stanley Hall, an early writer on the scientific study of adolescence, in 1904 referred to the teen age years as a time of “storm and stress.” Anna Freud thought a teen who didn’t act- out was abnormal. Teens have been compared to ships afloat in a storm without a sail or rudder. Yes, it is true. Many of them feel lost. One of my teen clients aptly called adolescence, “no man’s land.” The really amazing thing to me is not that they feel confused, overwhelmed and lost at times. I mean, who doesn’t? But, what amazes me is that most of them navigate this difficult channel to adulthood very successfully!

Adolescents-at-Risk for Alcohol Use Disorders (AUD)

Jann Gumbiner, Ph.D. — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 19:49:53 +0000

Adolescents-at-Risk for Alcohol Use Disorders:
A Case Study Approach

Katie (17) became sad, withdrawn, and stopped eating when her boyfriend, John, broke up with her. Katie is in her second semester of her freshman year at an Ivy League university. Katie was an excellent student in high school and very loved by her small town. Now, she feels overwhelmed, lost, lonely and out of place at the Ivy. A pretty girl, she was wooed by several frat boys. In order to fit it, Katie did a lot of drinking. Now, second semester, John broke up with her, she stopped going to class and she drinks daily. As a college counselor, what additional information would you like to know about Katie? What diagnoses would you consider and what interventions?

Even though the DSM-IV-TR (www.Psychiatryonline.com) is more appropriate for adults than teens (see my last post), it can still provide some useful guidelines to understanding addictions. And, because it is the industry standard, it is important to be knowledgeable about the diagnostic criteria for substance dependence. The symptoms of substance dependence include 3 of the following list and must be causing significant impairment over the previous 12 months: tolerance, withdrawal, inability to cut back or control use, excessive amount of time/effort seeking out the substance, giving up important social, occupational, and/or recreational activities due to the substance, and continued use despite knowing that the substance is exacerbating a medical condition.

Again, I really want to emphasize that diagnosing a teen is much more difficult than diagnosing an adult because some teens are experimenting and will grow out of their use and they have a relatively short use history. Obviously, the goal with a young person is to try to prevent them from becoming dependent. The questions then become - how and when to intervene? Are there symptoms of early onset of alcoholism? Which interventions are effective (www.nida.gov)? Believe me, if I had the answers to all these questions, I would be God, Mother Teresa, or a fairy godmother (which I am not). Many times as a therapist, I have wished I had a magic wand that I could simply wave and make things better. Unfortunately, I don't. And, neither does anybody else. But, still not doing anything is not an option. So...we proceed with our limited tools and try to avoid doing harm.

How would you help Katie? What additional information would you like to know?

Adolescents-at-Risk for Alcohol Abuse Dependence (AUD)

Jann Gumbiner, Ph.D. — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:31:31 +0000

Are some adolescents at greater risk for serious alcohol problems? And, if so, how can they be identified and protected? These are central questions guiding assessment, diagnosis, treatment and alcohol prevention programs.

According to the DSM-IV (www.psychiatryonline.com), Alcohol Abuse Disorder is diagnosed when an individual indulges repeatedly in an alcoholic substance that impairs their occupational or social functioning. The key word here is "impairs." To be considered a psychological disorder, alcohol use must result in clinically significant impairment of social or occupational functioning. Right away we run into problems with this definition for teens. What is their occupation? What is expected of them socially?

Many problems arise trying to use the DSM-IV, the bible of the mental health community, to diagnose teenagers. First, the DSM-IV is designed on, written for, and clinically tested on adults. And, adolescents are different from adults in important ways. To begin with, adolescents are not fully grown. The very root of the Latin word, adolescere, means still growing. Adolescent brains and neurology are not fully developed. Teens are more impulsive and have less self-control than adults. They are curious and like to experiment.

For years, adolescent disorders have been assessed by using psychological instruments developed and normed on adults. These tools tend to "overpathologize" for teens. When I compared the same 18 year olds on the adult version of the MMPI, Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, to their profiles on the adolescent version, their adult profiles looked schizophrenic but the adolescent profiles were normal (Gumbiner, 1997). This is because different questions were asked for teenagers and different norms were developed. For example, it is normal for teens to seek out excitement, to like loud fun, and to experiment. This is important because for decades, teenagers have been diagnosed as having more serious problems than they actually did. Because the DSM-IV is based on adults, because adult psychological tools tend to overpathologize for teens, and because experimenting is normal for teens, it is extremely difficult to accurately diagnose adolescent alcohol use disorders.

Adolescents are different than adults. They are impulsive. They lack self-control. They like to experiment and all of these characteristics are normal in teens. Not surprisingly, teenage drinking patterns differ from adult ones. Teenagers typically drink less often than adults but will drink in heavy quantities, or binge drink (www.teens.drugabuse.gov). Their histories of alcohol use are shorter. And, many of them mature out of drinking on their own. So, understanding adolescent drinking requires understanding the maturational level (or lack of it) of each individual teen and adolescent development in general.

The course of adolescent drinking may take several directions. Probably, the most serious direction is an alcohol related injury. Accidents are the leading cause of death in teens. An intoxicated teen can cause a car accident and kill themselves or someone else. Also, due to their youth and short history with alcohol, they are not very judges of their degree of intoxication. Furthermore, due to lack of self-control, teens are more likely to get into alcohol related fights or date rape situations. Some teens will simply mature out of drinking but some will have life-long struggles with drinking. Is it possible to identify this group and intervene before the problem becomes overwhelming? This is the question, I plan to address in my next post.

Gumbiner, J. (1997). Comparison of scores on the MMPI-A and MMPI-2 for young adults. Psychological Reports, 81, 787-794.

Adolescents and Alcohol

Jann Gumbiner, Ph.D. — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 17:19:08 +0000

Alcohol, not marijuana, is the drug of choice for most teenagers and college students. Among high school seniors, nearly half report using alcohol in the past year. Among college students, 80 percent drink and half of those binge drink. Heavy episodic, or binge drinking, is defined as 5 or more drinks at a time and can have dangerous consequences. Drinking alcohol is pervasive among minors and can have very serious consequences (Hingson, et al., 2002).

A few years ago, a colleague peeked his head through my open, office door. He had something urgent to show me. Dr. Bullock pulled out a small, orange booklet. He opened it to show me that tonight, Monday, three meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) were offered in the city of Orange. On Tuesday, two meetings were offered during the day and two at night. On Wednesday there were more classes, on Thursday still more, and so forth for every day of the week. And, this was only one city in Orange County. There were even more daily classes offered in the bigger cities of Anaheim and Newport. This little booklet listed several pages of local AA classes. What Dr. Bullock was trying to demonstrate to me is that alcoholism is a pervasive and overwhelming problem.

Who drinks? Well, let me see... there is my middle-aged neighbor on the right who runs a cooking business, sips wine all day, and is half-conscious by 4 pm. Then, there is my neighbor on the other side, who doesn't start until after dinner when her husband slams the window so we can't hear him screaming, "Nancy, you are too classy to sit here every night getting sloshed." And...my college friend who gets out of bed in the morning to fix her husband breakfast, then crawls right back in bed after he leaves and starts on her first bottle for the day. Women drink and they drink a lot but it is not well known because they drink in the quiet and comfort of their homes. Who drinks? Mom drinks, grandma drinks, and teenaged granddaughter drinks. Just about everyone drinks. It would be easier to count the people who don't drink than those who do.

Drinking has deep and lucrative roots in the American culture. In the early 20th century, drinking became such a serious problem that a constitutional amendment was passed against it. Prohibition simply succeeded in making bootleggers rich. People didn't stop drinking and ultimately Prohibition was reversed.

For many years, drinking and smoking were glamorized by Hollywood. Bette Davis always has a cigarette in her hand and the elegantly dressed Thin Man couple, Nick and Nora Charles, compete to see who can down more cocktails. In a more recent movie, American Pie, Finch tries to seduce Stiffer's mom by implying that beer is for kids but adults drink "liquor."

Finch, a high school senior, is trying to be an adult by drinking "liquor."

Personally, I grew up in the era of the cocktail culture. Homes were built with cocktail bars and furnished with cocktail tables. Mothers gave cocktail parties where they wore beautiful, cocktail dresses and served delicious, alcoholic cocktails. (For a glimpse of this cocktail culture, I direct the reader to the TV show, Mad Men.) Growing up I wanted to be sophisticated like my parents and Hollywood role models. So, like Finch I started drinking.

It should come as no surprise that teenagers drink. We live in a culture that condones drinking and makes alcohol easily available. Anybody can do to the store and buy wine, beer, or liquor. We live in a culture where their role models - parents, grandparents, and media heroes -drink. Yes, smoking and drinking are less glamorized than they once were but drinking is still pervasive and alcohol is very easy to obtain.

As a culture drinking is glamorized, accepted, and tolerated. The most extreme example of this is the pervasive drinking culture of minors on college campuses. Liquor stores are located adjacent to college campuses. Greek organizations include binge drinking as initiation rites. But, binge drinking in minors can have drastic consequences such as automobile accidents and date rape. Even mild drinking loosens inhibitions and impairs judgment. And, the drinkers themselves, aren't the only ones to suffer. The consequences of their actions affect many innocent people.

Some of the unwanted consequences of excessive, underage drinking include: death, injury assault, date rape, unsafe sex, academic problems, and property damages, and police problems. Each year approximately two million college students drive under the influence of alcohol (Hingson, et al., 2002). Among those, 1400 college students die each year from alcohol-related related unintentional injuries. About 25% of college students say drinking damaged their academic success either by missing classes, falling behind, doing poorly on exams or papers, receiving lower grades or dropping out. Interestingly, drinking is a less serious problem at community colleges, where students live at home, than at eastern universities with active fraternities.

To sum up, drinking is a pervasive problem. Teenagers grow up in a culture that glamorizes drinking and makes alcohol easily available. Unfortunately, drinking can have serious consequences. In a series of future posts, I plan to talk about alcoholism and the adolescent brain, the at-risk teen, and treatment options. Please keep reading and feel free to join in the conversation.

Hingson, R.W., Heeren, T., Zalocs, R.C., Wechsler, H. (2002). Magnitude of alcohol-related mortality and morbidity among U.S. college students ages 18-24. Journal of Studies on Alcohol. 63(2):136-144.

How Much Pot Is Too Much Pot?

Jann Gumbiner, Ph.D. — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:54:01 +0000

Marijuana is generally thought of as a soft drug. It is perceived as less harmful than alcohol. But, like anything from a glass of wine to doughnuts, it is possible to overindulge. So, how much pot is too much pot?

Are you smoking too much when you can't get out of bed to go to class? Are you smoking too much when you light up daily but are still getting straight A"s? How do you know when you are smoking too much pot?

There is no easy answer to this question. "Too much pot" will vary from individual to individual. Ryan can light up and study physics every night. Sarah gets the munchies, over eats, and falls asleep. The amount and type of pot will affect different people differently.

When does substance use become substance abuse? The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM-IV-TR (2000), which is the most widely used psychiatric classification system, lists 8 Cannabis Disorders. They are: Cannabis Dependence, Cannabis Abuse, Cannabis Intoxication, Cannabis Intoxication Delirium, Cannabis-Induced Psychotic Disorder, With Delusions, Cannabis-Induced Psychotic Disorder, With Hallucinations, Cannabis-Induced Anxiety Disorder, and Cannabis-Related Disorder Not Otherwise Specified. The diagnostic criteria for Cannabis Abuse, for example, are:

recurrent use resulting in failure to fulfill major role obligations at work, school, or home
recurrent use in situations that are physically harmful, like driving a car
recurrent substance-related legal problems
continued substance abuse despite recurrent social or interpersonal problems exacerbated by the effects.

In other words, Cannabis Abuse is considered a mental disorder when it impairs social or occupational functioning. In a teenager or college student, this usually takes the form of poor school performance, change of friends, and/or conflict with the law. For example, if a student is unable to get out of bed and go to class and her grades drop, then she is smoking too much pot. If a man is breaking the law by growing and selling to buy pot, then he is smoking too much. Simply put, when marijuana is interfering with daily life it is too much.

American Psychiatric Association. 2009. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., text revsion). Washington, DC: Author.

Memories of Michael, Music, and MTV

Jann Gumbiner, Ph.D. — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:01:37 +0000

Goodbye, Michael. I didn't know you and yet I did. My earliest memories of you were as the little brother in the Jackson Five. I remember your cherubic smile, the rhythmic beat of Motown, and your sweet high pitched voice singing..."I'll be there." You surpassed your brothers and became a solo phenomenon. The MTV generation emulated your moon walk, the one handed glove, and your jackets. Million of kids grew up adoring you. They were all trying to dance backward and be like you.
Your wild gyrations and sweet soprano brought us joy. Your cinematography and choreography blew us away. But you said, you only felt loved when you were on stage. Well, know this, Michael you are a legend and you will live forever. Thank you for your creativity, for your gifts, and for entertaining us. We will never forget you.

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO LEAVE A POST HERE AND SAY GOOD-BYE TO MICHAEL JACKSON. YOU MAY SHARE A SPECIAL TIME OR MEMORY. PLEASE BE RESPECTFUL OF FANS AND FAMILY WHO ARE IN MOURNING.

Marijuana, Sleep and Dreams

Jann Gumbiner, Ph.D. — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:04:57 +0000

Marijuana affects dreams. Stoners say they don't have dreams but if they stop smoking for a few days, they are flooded with dreams. Is there any psychological reserach supporting this?

Sleep and wakefulness are both parts of a normal daily rhythm. Fish, cats, humans, and many other living things have daily cycles of activity and rest. This daily cycle is called a circadian rhythm. "Circadian" comes from the Latin root "circa dies" and means about a day. Both external and internal events can influence circadian rhythms. Morning light and alarm clocks trigger wakefulness. When isolated from normal time cues, the daily human cycle is about 24 hours, hence "circa dies."

The study of sleep is fascinating! Sleep has been extensively studied in research laboratories, like the University of Chicago, by measuring brain waves and eye movements while research subjects sleep. Gentle electrodes are placed on volunteers' scalps and near their eyes. While sleeping, the electroencephalogram (EEG) provides evidence of brain activity. Though sleep seems like a passive state to us, the brain is still very active. In fact, the EEG of a person falling asleep shows five stages of sleep: Stages 1-4 and a stage called rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Each stage is progressively deeper and the complete cycle is repeated several times during the night. When awakened during REM sleep, subjects report dreaming. So if dreams take place during REM sleep, the question for us is, does smoking marijuana interrupt REM sleep?

To address this question, Feinberg, et al. (1975) compared the sleep patterns of experienced marijuana users on tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and a placebo. Feinberg, et al. (1975) reported reduced eye movement activity and less REM sleep in the THC condition. They also reported a REM rebound effect, that is more REM activity, on withdrawal from THC. So,there exists some scientific evidence that marijuana interfers with REM sleep.

If sleep is fascinating, dreaming is even more so! No one knows for sure the meaning or function of night time dreams but there is plenty of speculation. Freud believed dreams represented the royal road to the unconcsious. They told us our secret desires and fears. In his book Memories, Dreams, and Reflections, Jung describes some fascinating dreams of his own. In particular, he describes one dream that haunted him for a very long time. When he was about three years old, he dreamed he was in a large meadow. In this meadow, there was a big dark hole. Slowly and cautiously, he descended this dark hole. At the bottom, he found a richly decorated king's throne and on the throne was a huge fleshy object. This thing was about 10 to 15 feet high and came to head but had no face. At the very top was a large eye gazing upward. During the dream, he heard his mother's voice saying this was a man eater. The 3 year old Jung, awoke terrified and dripping in sweat. This dream preoccupied him for years. Many years later he came to understand the dream as a symbol of a giant phallus and the beginning of his theory of archetypes.

I must confess I have never been visited by a giant phallus during the night but I have had some pretty cool dreams. During a period of intense anxiety, I was obsessed with death. One night I dreamed I was sitting in a movie theater impatiently waiting for the movie to begin. My father and my brother were next to me and I was facing the big white screen, waiting and waiting. Finally, the picture began and I was flooded with profound white light and overwhelming love. Death had come for me but death was not scary, but extremly benevolent, loving and blissful. How about you? Any night time dreams you'd like to share? Any thoughts on marijuana and dreams?

Feinberg, I., Jones, R, Walker JM, Cavness, C, March, J. (1975). Effects of high dosage delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol on sleep patterns in man. Clin Parmacol Ther. 1975; 17(4):458-66.

Is Marijuana Harmful?

Jann Gumbiner, Ph.D. — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:28:12 +0000

When President Obama was soliciting ideas to improve the economy, the most popular suggestion among youth was the legalization of marijuana. This was based on the assumption that maijuana is harmless. But, is it?

Facts for Teens. An excellent source of facts for teens can be found here. Marijuana influences everybody a little differently. Some people like it because it makes them feel relaxed. Others, feel paranoid. Some people say it helps them tune into music. Food tastes better. Time slows down. But, just about everybody agrees, marijuana alters perception.

The way marijuana affects each individual will depend on: how strong the marijuana is, who the user is with, how the user is feeling at the time, whether it is combined with alcohol or other drugs, and the user's previous experience with marijuana.

Youth like to experiment and marijuana is seen as relatively harmless. But, is it? If marijuana alters perceptions and judgement then driving a car could be dangerous. Impaired judgement could lead to risky sexual behavior and exposure to sexually transtmitted diseases like HIV. But, perhaps one of the most serious side effects of marijuana is lethargy. Marijuana makes people lazy.

In the end, President Obama said no to pot because it is illegal. So, marijuana can have legal consequences to its users. Now, here is my question to you...Is marijuana harmful?