Children and teenagers, who smoke marijuana, are more prone to get into depression, as concluded by a study.

Many such studies confirm this fact, but others don't. Moreover, it is also not clear whether marijuana itself, or some other factor, accounts for the association seen in some studies.

In a study, the data was being collected from more than 50,000 adults in 17 countries that took part in a World Health Organization mental-health study. It was found that there is a moderate association between consumption before the age of 17 and the chances of suffering from depression later in life. Earlier this figure was 50%.

So, it is not clear whether the childhood behavioral problems have a connection with the use of marijuana. The limitation of the study was that it was conducted at a single point of time and not on frequent time intervals.

This type of study cannot prove that marijuana itself was the contributing cause to aggravate depression risk. It may be that young people, who are threatened to develop depression or other mental health issues, are also more likely to use marijuana.

More researches are still needed to strengthen the association between the marijuana use and depression.