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.
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