Marijuana comes from the hemp plant, Cannabis sativa. Users smoke dried leaves and flowers from the plant to get high. In 2015, 10% of middle and high school students surveyed said they smoked marijuana daily, and a staggering 91.3% had used the drug at some point in their lifetime.
Marijuana addiction — like all forms of addiction — is a mental disorder that rewires the brain’s reward center. The younger a person begins smoking weed, the more likely they are to develop an addiction. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, teens who use marijuana before the age of 18 are 4–7 times more likely to develop marijuana use disorder than adults.
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