Marijuana use by College students as a health behavior concern

By Aysha Siddiqui.

Walden University.

Marijuana use by College students as a health behavior concern

Abstract

This paper examines the use of the drug called marijuana by college students, the research on the rising trend of the use of the drug by students, the harmful effects of the drug on the health of the users and the motivational factors that may be presented to the students for abstinence from the use of marijuana.

Keywords: - marijuana, health behavior, motivational factors marijuana.

Marijuana use by College students as a health behavior concern

Health concerns for Marijuana users

‘Marijuana’ is a substance described by the National Institute of Drug abuse as ‘a greenish-gray mixture of the dried, shredded leaves, stems, seeds, and flowers of Cannabis sativa—the hemp plant’. For a common person marijuana is a drug that’s used with a hand rolled paper and known as the ‘joint’.  Gledhill-Hoyt et al (2000) did a study on the rising trend of marijuana use by college students by using over fifteen thousand random samples from 119 US colleges. They concluded that there had been an increase in the use of marijuana and other illicit drugs on campuses across the United States in most student subgroups and all types of colleges. They said that their results may reflect the experiments done by middle and secondary school students, but most of the participants started regular use during college days and intervention efforts were needed at college level to stop the trend of using marijuana on the rise.

Harmful effects of Marijuana

Marijuana use is harmful to body and can be a substance that has the tendency to develop addiction to. According to Larsen et al (2013) there is a relationship between marijuana users and lifetime gamblers. Many families are negatively affected by marijuana use, even those with children in them. If Marijuana is regularly used during teenage years and young adult life, then it can have unfavorable effects. The most apparent negative effects of health include motor vehicle crashes, respiratory function defects, cardiovascular diseases and last but certainly not the least, mental and psychological health defects (Hall and Degenhardt, 2009).  Motor vehicle crashes have been linked with the use of marijuana and has been researched on many times. Li et al (2012) studied nine epidemiologic studies in the past two decades and concluded in their study that the use of marijuana by drivers notably increased the risk of being involved in motor vehicle crashes. The NIH also confirms that marijuana use ‘seriously impairs judgment and motor coordination, marijuana also contributes to accidents while driving’. Analysis from various studies shows that marijuana use increases the risk of being in an accident by two times and the combination of the drug with alcohol is a really bad case with reference to driving impairment.

Marijuana has an effect on life and mental abilities, and if used for prolonged time it can even cause long term damage. Research shows that marijuana can affect a person’s daily life activities, and regular drug users suffer from conditions like depression, poor mental and physical health. It’s observed that marijuana may even be linked to ‘dropping out from school’ (NIH). Dougherty et al (2013) tested all behavioral and cognitive areas of marijuana users and concluded that the domain most affected was that of short term memory recall and being sensitive to the situations around them.

Motivational factors for students

The three factors that can motivate college students to not use marijuana would be to show the link between results in academics and drug use, second, the use of drugs to be portrayed as a factor that can affect social life in a negative manner, and third, personal health to suffer with use of the drug.

All these factors need to be introduced through the institution and if a program is developed nationally that could be circulated in all colleges, especially those that show in research analysis a high level of incidents related to marijuana use.

Motivational Interviewing skills to use

The two skills that can be mostly used in dealing with the subjects of this intervention would be guiding and informing. The group concentrated here is that of college students who are young, at an age where responsibility is still becoming part of their behavior and using it as a habit is yet to fully develop. However, college students are adults and very capable of understanding the harmful effects of drug use like marijuana on their health. The use of the skill of ‘informing’ would be the most important in this health behavior change. The information part can be used as part of orientation at the college, and maybe intertwined into the enticing freedom that these young adults are keen to experience.

Following would be a skill that can be applied as well. When interviewing participants, the therapist could consider the pressure that the students feel when they are introduced to a new environment, new people and most of all the lack of family support. These maybe factors driving them to use marijuana. The stress of being in a ‘new place among new people’ maybe causing the users to use the drug. In such cases following maybe a key skill since then the users may be able to explain the actual motivators that makes them decide to use the drug. According to Byrne and Mazanov (1999) the relation between stress and use of alcohol or drugs among teenagers is well established. The use of drugs is much stronger than alcohol and more in girls than boys.

The skill of directing would be useful when dealing with a younger group of students, especially those who are just entering the college. Since these are students who wouldn’t have much experience with pressures of the institution so the skill of following may not useful here. However, directing would help and if combined with the motivational factors like popularity, negative psychological health that results in poor grades and safety, security. This would be an appealing factor for youth that is feeling detached from family as well.

Conclusion

Use of marijuana is a common negative health behavior seen among college students and it has effects on health that can be very damaging to the mental health and considering external factors also. Interventions can be made to stop this negative health behavior that can useful if done by using the proper motivational interviewing skills and with use of motivational factors that appeal to college students strongly.

References:-

Byrne, D. G., & Mazanov, J. (1999). Sources of adolescent stress, smoking and the use of other drugs. Stress and Health, 15(4), 215-227.

Dougherty, D. M., Mathias, C. W., Dawes, M. A., Furr, R. M., Charles, N. E., Liguori, A., ... & Acheson, A. (2013). Impulsivity, attention, memory, and decision-making among adolescent marijuana users. Psychopharmacology, 1-13.

Hall, W., & Degenhardt, L. (2009). Adverse health effects of non-medical cannabis use. The Lancet, 374(9698), 1383-1391.

Gledhill‐Hoyt, J., Lee, H., Strote, J., & Wechsler, H. (2000). Increased use of marijuana and other illicit drugs at US colleges in the 1990s: results of three national surveys. Addiction, 95(11), 1655-1667.

Larsen, C. V. L., Curtis, T., & Bjerregaard, P. (2013). Harmful alcohol use and frequent use of marijuana among lifetime problem gamblers and the prevalence of cross-addictive behaviour among Greenland Inuit: evidence from the cross-sectional Inuit health in transition Greenland survey 2006–2010. International journal of circumpolar health, 72.

Li, M. C., Brady, J. E., DiMaggio, C. J., Lusardi, A. R., Tzong, K. Y., & Li, G. (2012). Marijuana use and motor vehicle crashes. Epidemiologic Reviews,34(1), 65-72.