#Weed out

Spot the early signs of the use and abuse of drugs in children to reverse the power of brain play, writes Dr Payal Sharma Kamath

As the pandemic has induced several challenges globally, India’s draining economy has certainly posed a butterfly effect of adversity on the already-disrupting normal. This has especially taken a toll on the citizen’s mental health due to massive job losses and the feeling of uncertainty hovering over almost everybody’s minds. Irrespective of the financial background and demography, people have increasingly resorted to consuming illicit drugs as a short-term relief to tide over the current feelings. The availability of drugs, especially cannabis, in abundance and the poor regulatory standards in the country, have led to drug use disorders among scores of people, of which a majority comprises the youth. While India was already known for mounting numbers of adolescent drug abuse victims, the rising number of drug abuse victims have further struck a chord to try and flatten this curve at least during these trying times.

As alarming as the current unprecedented times of the pandemic are, a subsequent reduction in awareness to address this new rising trend of drug usage and abuse will only wreak havoc in the country moving forward. While the monitoring on a nation-wide front is also tedious for the regulators to track, at a personal level, certain actions could be taken to address the concern by understanding the whole process about why adolescents are falling prey to drug abuse.

If compared with an adult, a teenager’s brain is still in a developmental process. Their frontal cortex of the brain — a very crucial part in planning actions and also for habit formation, is still in development. A teen’s brain is also more susceptible to stress than that of an adult, hence paving the way for them to get addicted to substances. Adolescents are very vulnerable to their surroundings, so if anything in their surroundings is rewarding, like an adventurous thing or anything that gives them quick results, etc., they are more vulnerable to those actions.

Cannabis is a gateway drug and it is more obvious because of its easy availability in the illicit market. Moreover, its continuous usage also causes brain changes within the adolescents hence increasing their propensity to get involved in consuming other drugs like LSD, opioids or stimulants, etc. This, in turn, has led to a sudden boom in drug abuse, especially during these unprecedented times, wherein the drug dealers’ both touchpoints and consumers are — the adolescents. On an average, 60% of youth smoke weed.

Catastrophic

Cannabis induces a lot of micro-structural changes in an adolescent’s brain. It also worsens their neurocognitive performance and alters their brain functioning. While the use and abuse of cannabis by teens does mushroom stigma maligning the family as a whole, having a thoughtful and calculated approach as parents is the need of the hour to avert any further unforeseen dire implications.

Knowing the root cause: As a parent, one needs to understand why the child started the intake of cannabis. Is it because of inquisitiveness or because of peer pressure or is it because of some emotional psychological trauma that they are going through? Sometimes an adolescent’s personality is very impulsive due to which they get influenced and attracted to different factors that have various reward systems.

Seeking professional help: As a parent, obviously seeking professional help is the most important thing because we also need to address any underlying psychiatric problem/ mental problem/ or a personality issue.

The signs of cannabis abuse: As a parent, be aware of what can be the physical and psychological signs of cannabis use, to understand what the child is consuming. Look at their behavioural changes. Also, keep checking the potential hiding places in the house where the child can store their cannabis. Physical symptoms like red eyes, forgetfulness, laughter without any reason, appetite changes, hallucinations, panic, and anxiety and some behavioural changes like not maintaining school work and day-to-day activities, changes in their behaviour with the family, etc. are red alerts.

(The author is a psychiatrist)