The following studies are just two of many that continue to affirm one of the fundamentals of socialisation and behaviour – that is; your perception of reality is constructed socially, and that’s done through recency, frequency, proximity and intensity. What and who you are immersed in and with,  will INFLUENCE the ‘lens’ through which you see. 

What makes things worse still, is that if there is an absence of sound positive values that are not ‘anchored’ to a sustainable and healthy, values informing worldview. These deficits will pretty much ensure that this ‘INFLUENCE’ will push the ‘wheelbarrow’ (that is YOU) in a direction that will be way less than helpful! When substances are thrown into that mix, then you have even less control over what is ‘pushing’ your life and where!

Genes and teens: How is youth cannabis use influenced by genetic risk and peer use?

Having more peers that were perceived to use cannabis was associated with higher levels of cannabis over time, and this factor was nearly 4-times more important in understanding patterns of cannabis use than genetic risk. Further, perceived peer cannabis use predicted cannabis involvement at all levels of genetic risk.

Reducing affiliation with substance using peers is a powerful target for both prevention and treatment, as is correcting and re-structuring misperceptions surrounding normative behavior that might implicitly and/or explicitly impact health behavior. 

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Network Support II: Randomized Controlled Trial of Network Support Treatment and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Alcohol Use Disorder

Background: The social network of those treated for alcohol use disorder can play a significant role in subsequent drinking behavior, both for better and worse. Network Support treatment was devised to teach ways to reconstruct social networks so that they are more supportive of abstinence and less supportive of drinking. For many patients this may involve engagement with AA, but other strategies are also used.

Conclusion: It was concluded that helping patients enhance their abstinent social network can be effective, and may provide a useful alternative or adjunctive approach to treatment. 

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Parenting in the Digital Age

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• Largest study of its kind found that 7% of adult depression could be prevented
• Drug has also been linked to suicidal thoughts and attempts 
• Researchers say tackling the use of millions of under 18s should be a priority  

PUBLISHED:  14 February 2019

Smoking cannabis in your teenage years raises the risk of depression and suicide in later life, a landmark new study has found. 

Researchers from the US and UK have revealed the drug could impair a child's brain to the extent it triggers mental health disorders later in life.  

In the largest research of its kind, experts from Oxford University and McGill University estimated that over half a million adults in the UK and US could be saved from mental health disorders by avoiding the drug as a teenager. 

The teams have now warned that cannabis, legal in several US states and used by millions of young people is a significant public health risk with 'devastating consequences'. They have urgently called for officials to make tackling use of the drug a priority. 

'It's a big public health and mental health problem, we think,' co-author Professor Andrea Cipriani, from the University of Oxford, said.

'The number of people who are exposed to cannabis, especially in this vulnerable age, is very high and I think this should be a priority for public health and the mental health sector.'

The researchers, at McGill University and the University of Oxford, analysed data from 11 studies involving more than 23,000 individuals.

For complete article 

Major study reveals drug 'damages children's brains' and half a MILLION adults could avoid mental-health disorder if they had turned down marijuana

• Largest study of its kind found that 7% of adult depression could be prevented
• Drug has also been linked to suicidal thoughts and attempts 
• Researchers say tackling the use of millions of under 18s should be a priority  

PUBLISHED:  14 February 2019

Smoking cannabis in your teenage years raises the risk of depression and suicide in later life, a landmark new study has found. 

Researchers from the US and UK have revealed the drug could impair a child's brain to the extent it triggers mental health disorders later in life.  

In the largest research of its kind, experts from Oxford University and McGill University estimated that over half a million adults in the UK and US could be saved from mental health disorders by avoiding the drug as a teenager. 

The teams have now warned that cannabis, legal in several US states and used by millions of young people is a significant public health risk with 'devastating consequences'. They have urgently called for officials to make tackling use of the drug a priority. 

'It's a big public health and mental health problem, we think,' co-author Professor Andrea Cipriani, from the University of Oxford, said.

'The number of people who are exposed to cannabis, especially in this vulnerable age, is very high and I think this should be a priority for public health and the mental health sector.'

The researchers, at McGill University and the University of Oxford, analysed data from 11 studies involving more than 23,000 individuals.

For complete article

Date: February 2019  Source: University of Illinois at Chicago

Summary: Lasting changes in the brain caused by drinking that starts in adolescence are the result of epigenetic changes that alter the expression of a protein crucial for the formation and maintenance of neural connections in the amygdala -- the part of the brain involved in emotion, fear and anxiety.     

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