Q. You told a concerned grandmother that her 16-year-old grandson’s breast enlargement might be due to marijuana. I can only wonder what you were smoking!
Contrary to government propaganda, marijuana has NOT been linked to breast development in anybody. Too many people’s lives have been devastated by misinformation of this sort in the press.
A. The fact that marijuana is illegal has hampered objective research on its risks as well as on its potential benefits. The idea that smoking marijuana could be linked to breast enlargement in boys may have originated with several cases reported in the medical literature. Very few scientific studies have examined the link between marijuana and hormone levels and those have produced conflicting results.
A number of prescription drugs can trigger breast enlargement in men. So can hormonal imbalances. Although breast development in teenage boys is not usually serious, it should always be evaluated by a physician.
