What Every Parent Should Know About Teens and Cannabis in 2025
Despite legalization spreading across the U.S., teen cannabis use has held relatively stable—but emergency visits, accidental child ingestions, and the potency of available products have all increased.
Quick Facts
What This Study Found
This comprehensive review covers three decades of adolescent cannabis trends in the United States, and the picture it paints is more complicated than either "legalization is harmless" or "legalization is catastrophic" narratives suggest.
Teenage use rates have remained remarkably stable despite legalization. But the harms landscape has shifted. Emergency department visits related to cannabis have increased, as have unintentional ingestions by young children—driven largely by edibles and concentrates that look like candy or food. The products themselves have changed dramatically: THC concentrations in cannabis have risen steadily, and concentrates can reach 80–90% THC, far beyond anything available a generation ago.
The review highlights several clinical concerns. Cannabis intoxication in youth presents with altered mental status, drowsiness, anxiety or euphoria, rapid heart rate, and red eyes. Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome (CHS)—characterized by cyclic vomiting in heavy users—should be considered in adolescents with unexplained vomiting. Long-term heavy use is associated with cognitive impairment, increased psychosis risk, and cannabis use disorder, with adolescent brains being particularly vulnerable.
The authors call for ongoing surveillance, public education, and regulatory efforts to limit youth access—particularly to high-potency products.
Key Numbers
THC content in cannabis products has increased steadily over 30 years. Concentrates can reach 80–90% THC. Cannabis-related ED visits, hospitalizations, and unintentional child ingestions have all increased. Teen use rates have remained relatively stable despite legalization.
How They Did This
Narrative review synthesizing published literature on adolescent cannabis use trends, clinical presentations, health effects, and policy implications across approximately 30 years of U.S. data.
Why This Research Matters
This review puts individual study findings into a broader developmental context. While studies like RTHC-00163 examine specific outcomes (psychotic experiences) and RTHC-00154/00156 look at specific interventions (cessation programs), this review connects the dots: stable use rates don't mean stable risk, because the products teens encounter today are fundamentally different from those of previous decades.
The Bigger Picture
The potency escalation documented here connects to the broader potency literature (RTHC-00106 on high-potency cannabis and dependence, RTHC-00115 on concentrate use and negative outcomes). The psychosis concern aligns with RTHC-00163's findings on cannabis and psychotic-like experiences. And the developmental vulnerability emphasis connects to RTHC-00014 (teen brain effects) and the adolescent-specific findings in RTHC-00156 (higher dual abstinence rates in teens vs. young adults, suggesting less entrenched use patterns).
What This Study Doesn't Tell Us
Narrative reviews are subject to selection bias in which studies are highlighted. The stable-use-rate claim depends on survey methodology that may miss changes in use patterns (frequency, potency, product type) even when prevalence stays flat. The review focuses on U.S. data and may not apply globally.
Questions This Raises
- ?Are today's higher-potency products producing more harm per user even if fewer teens are using?
- ?How should potency limits be set for legal markets?
- ?Are current screening tools sensitive enough to detect problems with concentrate use versus flower?
Trust & Context
- Key Stat:
- Evidence Grade:
- Narrative review synthesizing a wide range of sources—useful for context but limited by the author's selection of included evidence.
- Study Age:
- Published in 2025, providing a current synthesis of 30 years of adolescent cannabis data.
- Original Title:
- Adolescents and cannabis in the 21st century: Current Problems in Pediatric and Adolescent Health Care.
- Published In:
- Current problems in pediatric and adolescent health care, 55(3), 101754 (2025) — Current Problems in Pediatric and Adolescent Health Care is a peer-reviewed journal focusing on health issues affecting children and adolescents.
- Authors:
- Itriyeva, Khalida
- Database ID:
- RTHC-06721
Evidence Hierarchy
Summarizes existing research without a strict systematic method.
What do these levels mean? →Read More on RethinkTHC
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Cite This Study
https://rethinkthc.com/research/RTHC-06721APA
Itriyeva, Khalida. (2025). Adolescents and cannabis in the 21st century: Current Problems in Pediatric and Adolescent Health Care.. Current problems in pediatric and adolescent health care, 55(3), 101754. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cppeds.2025.101754
MLA
Itriyeva, Khalida. "Adolescents and cannabis in the 21st century: Current Problems in Pediatric and Adolescent Health Care.." Current problems in pediatric and adolescent health care, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cppeds.2025.101754
RethinkTHC
RethinkTHC Research Database. "Adolescents and cannabis in the 21st century: Current Proble..." RTHC-06721. Retrieved from https://rethinkthc.com/research/itriyeva-2025-adolescents-and-cannabis-in
Access the Original Study
Study data sourced from PubMed, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health.
This study breakdown was produced by the RethinkTHC research team. We analyze and report published research findings without making health recommendations. All interpretations are based solely on the published abstract and study data.