KIDS are much more likely to use drugs if their parents use cannabis, experts have found.
Substance use is “handed down the generations”, new findings suggest.
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It’s hoped the discovery could pave the way for better prevention and treatment strategies.
That could include screening and counselling programmes for all family members, scientists at Harvard Medical School said.
Substance use passed on
They found children are two and a half times more likely to smoke, drink and take drugs if their parents smoked weed.
Prof Bertha Madras, who led the study, said: “Recent and past use of marijuana by parents was associated with increased risk of marijuana, tobacco and alcohol use by adolescent or young adult children living in the same household.”
Her team looked at data from 24,900 pairs of parents and offspring.
They included kids aged 12 to 17 and young adults aged 18 to 30 – all of whom lived at home.
Prof Madras said there is growing concern about the impact cannabis is having on young people.
“Earlier marijuana initiation is linked with higher rates of addiction, impaired cognition, pre-clinical or clinical symptoms of psychosis, schizophrenia, depression, suicidal thoughts and reduced educational achievement and employment status,” she explained.
Bad influence
Her team analysed data from National Surveys on Drug Use and Health in the US from 2015 to 2018.
They found parents who used cannabis were much more likely to have kids that used drugs, booze and smoked.
Prof Madras said: “Screening household members for substance use and counselling parents on risks posed by current and past marijuana use are warranted.”
Cannabis is the world’s most popular recreational drug.
Global use has soared over the past decade – particularly in the US following legalisation in some states.
Recent and past use of marijuana by parents was associated with increased risk of marijuana, tobacco and alcohol use by adolescent or young adult children
Prof Bertha Madras,Harvard Medical School
Earlier this year the 2019 World Drug report found almost 200 million people smoke pot worldwide – a rise of 60 per cent in the past decade.
Prof Madras said: “Marijuana use is increasing among adults and often co-occurs with other substance use.
“Therefore, it is important to examine whether parental marijuana use is associated with elevated risk of substance use among offspring living in the same household.”
Among mums with teenage children, one in 12 (8.2 per cent) had smoked it in the past year.
Almost as many of those living with young adult offspring had done so (7.6 per cent).
Of the fathers with teenagers, nearly one in ten (9.6 per cent) had indulged within the previous 12 months along with one in eleven of those with grown up children.
Normalising cannabis
Prof Madras said: “With peak marijuana use occurring among adults of childbearing and child-rearing ages, parental marijuana use conceivably poses a direct environmental risk of normalising marijuana use and enabling access to marijuana for their offspring.
“Adolescent marijuana use is highest among those with parents and peers who use marijuana compared with non-using counterparts, whereas peer influence on youth substance use can be neutralised by parents who do not use substances.
“In general, living with a parent who uses substances or has substance use disorder is a risk factor for use of substances among young offspring.”
She added: “This cross-sectional study found that parental recent and past marijuana use was associated with an increased risk of marijuana and other substance use by adolescent and young adult offspring living in the same household.
“As any substance use among young people increases the probability of using other or multiple psychoactive substances and of experiencing substance-related consequences, preventing a cycle of multi-generational substance use should be a national priority.”
New treatments needed
Psychiatrist Dr Robert Du Pont, a world renowned expert on substance abuse who was not involved in the study, said it has important implications for both drug use prevention and addiction treatment.
Dr Du Pont, president of the Institute for Behavior and Health, Rockville, Maryland, said: “Parents may question their ability to mitigate or significantly reduce the risks of their children having future substance use disorders.
“This study highlights the fact their own substance use may increase the risk of their children using these substances.”
Most drug addicts start their habit before the age of 18 – a period of rapid development when the brain is uniquely vulnerable.
Dr Du Pont said: “This study shows when parents use marijuana, their children have increased risk of using marijuana too.
“This underscores the need for engagement by both parents and health care professionals in youth substance use prevention and parental substance use disorder treatment.
“Rather than drug specific approaches to policy, prevention, and treatment, we must recognise the close connection of all substance use as well as the inter-generational contagion of substance use.”
The findings are published in JAMA Network Open.
