Smoking Weed as Teen Can Cause Health Issues Later

If you start smoking pot as a teenager, you might have to deal with a lot of health issues when you get older and probably for the rest of your life.

According to researchers from Canada’s Concordia University, people who begin smoking marijuana at a young age are more likely to face breathing problems, mental illnesses, lower IQ and even certain cancers in the future, Men’s Health reports. Health issues were worse for those who either smoked every day or started before they turned 15 years old. The researchers analyzed data from three studies to come up with their findings.

Deciding to quit later on may not help.

“Our results show the damage is permanent,” the authors wrote. “What teenagers use on average when they start to use marijuana imposes health costs on them for the rest of their lives.”

Read the Concordia University study.