Smoking marijuana for parents-to-be harms children, study

Scientists at the University of Washington sought to evaluate how the use of marijuana and alcohol would affect the health and well-being of the next generation, even if parents had stopped using it long ago.

Their findings show that certain habits and the age of smoking affect health even after decades, HighTech + reported.

The study kicked off in the 1980s. Scientists then observed fifth-grade students at several Seattle schools.

Then in 2002, when the subjects were 27 years old and some of them became parents, the team was monitoring the health and similar bad habits of their children.

Parents were divided into four groups to assess the consequences of consumption: never consuming marijuana, consuming as a teenager or earlier, consuming marijuana at the age of 20, and the 'chronic' group who smoked marijuana regularly.

Scientists got the expected results: Children of chronic smokers of marijuana also more often gravitated to its use and drinking alcohol.

However, the most unexpected result was obtained for the children of people who smoked marijuana being a teen. Their children were 2.5 times more likely to use marijuana and 1.8 times more likely to drink alcohol compared to children whose parents had never consumed.

Assessing the health and well-being of parents, scientists came to the conclusion that the 'chronic' smokers had mental and physical health problems, they had less financial stability and an increased tendency to risky and criminal behavior.

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