Systemic factors driving adolescent cannabis use and neurocognitive risks: structural inequities, policy gaps, and prevention gaps
Original framing: “How weed affects adolescent brains” — STAT News
The criminalization of cannabis in the early 20th century was rooted in racist policies targeting Mexican immigrants and Black communities, with propaganda linking the plant to 'degeneracy.' Prohibitionist frameworks have persisted despite evidence of cannabis’s therapeutic benefits, creating a legacy of stigma and disproportionate policing. Historical trauma in marginalized communities has normalized substance use as a response to systemic oppression, yet this context is rarely addressed in public health discourse.
The framing of adolescent cannabis use as a biological risk obscures how colonial legacies, racial capitalism, and neoliberal austerity have created the conditions for early initiation and substance use as coping mechanisms.
Indigenous traditions and Global South practices offer holistic frameworks for understanding cannabis that prioritize communal well-being over individual pathology, yet these are systematically erased in favor of biomedical narratives that serve pharmaceutical and corporate interests. Historical parallels—such as the racist origins of cannabis prohibition—reveal how drug policies have been tools of social control, disproportionately harming marginalized communities. Future scenarios demand a shift from punitive models to restorative justice, trauma-informed care, and culturally grounded education, but this requires dismantling the power structures that profit from stigma and criminalization. The solution lies in centering the voices of those most affected, while addressing the structural inequities that drive substance use in the first place.