A Case Scenario—How Addiction Can Spread Within a Family

A patient’s path toward "inheriting" addiction within the family

To "manage" unemployment, hopelessness, shame, and the boredom of staying home, unemployed parent(s) use sequentially THC and/or alcohol, and then pain pills, creating a family environment that enhances the risk of exposure to addiction, first among adult family members, and next children and/or teenagers.

Suddenly, instead of affecting one person, addiction spreads like an infectious disease through the family.

Exposure to THC and pain pills within their own family is further amplified at local schools, spreading into school teenagers, who bring this disease back to their families, perpetuating the epidemic at a logarithmic scale.

THC sensitizes the teenage brain receptors to opiates and suppresses motivation, setting the young individual up for failure in education, and increases the risk of early adulthood pregnancy (1). References:

M A. P. Bloomfield, A H. Ashok, N D. Volkow, Oliver D. Howes. The effects of Δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol on the dopamine system. Nature, volume 539, pages 369–377 (17 November 2016) -Dr. Bogdan Nowicki