Insights, Issues & Istook

If you want to be called PeeWee, then smoking dope is for you. Another medical study confirms that marijuana stunts growth as well as causing brain damage in youth. Boys who smoke marijuana are 4 inches shorter by age 20 than their counterparts, on average. That can earn them nicknames like PeeWee or Runt. But the drug legalization crowd continues to pooh-pooh the medical studies. They ignore the report from the National Institute for Drug Abuse that youth who use weed end up with lower IQ's and less ability to think. It harms memory, ability to learn, and impulse control. So the stereotype of becoming a 'stoner' is based in fact, not fiction. But advocates for legalization are using children, claiming that sick kids need marijuana for medicinal purposes. That foot-in-the-door approach to full legalization puts kids at risk for brain damage and stunted growth.