There is a startling study out that shows that teenagers who smoke marijuana daily are over 60 percent less likely to complete high school and 60 percent less likely to graduate college. Even more startling is that these students are seven times more likely to attempt suicide. The study is published in the respected medical journal, The Lancet Psychiatry.
The study looked at 3,725 students from Australian and New Zealand until they reached the age of 30. They found “clear and consistent associations between frequency of cannabis use during adolescence and most young adult outcomes investigated, even after controlling for 53 potential confounding factors including age, sex, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, use of other drugs, and mental illness.”
While I expect this study will be cited in the ongoing debate over legalization, it is worth noting that this involves student who use marijuana daily, which is an extremely high rate of use for most students. That level of drug use seems to me to reflect other problems that likely preexisted in the lives of the students or an environment that is not optimal. The data suggests that if a student uses cannabis less than monthly, he or she would have slightly lower odds of graduating high school or getting a college degree, compared to a person who doesn’t use at all. Other aspects are entirely unsurprising like the fact that even a monthly user has a four time greater likelihood of developing addiction to cannabis than someone who does not use it at all.
Then there is the interesting aspect of the drug being illegal. Since it is illegal, the authors of the study suggest that kids who use the drug are cross critical lines in violating the law — and associating with others who do so.
Source: Washington Post
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leej, Just busting balls. I don’t do smiley faces but visualize one there. Or, visualize my smiling face in person!
And, although kids under 16[key age] should not use cannabis, as I said earlier, what would a study of kids using booze daily show? Same results I bet.
(btw, I am not saying it is or is not true, just that I couldn’t verify it and until I see it verified by not just one side of the aisle I remain skeptical. That is why I usually ptovide clicks for what I post, because I do research it to back up what I write.)
Now Nick be nice. I googled it and there were no mainstream stories as well as googled it using HHS and did not find any, on first 2 pages, did not go further then that.
I never said kids shouldn’t use it, just as I think kids should not drink they should not be using “recreational drugs” (and esp when they are getting them from who knows what sources and with what it might be contaminated.)
And leej, Google News the EBT cards for cannabis stories. Often times the right and left will put a story on the front burner and then the MSM will pick up on it. I see reporting now from local TV stations in Washington and Colorado, Boston Globe, etc. If you think w/ BOTH sides of your brain you see the world much more clearly!
leej, The science is very strong that kids under 16 should not use cannabis.
I looked at the link about using EFT for marijuana shops but could only find right wing sites so cannot verify it. What did come up was the prof’s article last year: http://jonathanturley.org/2013/10/12/food-stamp-fantasies/
leejcaroll wrote: “I looked at the link about using EFT for marijuana shops but could only find right wing sites so cannot verify it.”
Really? The Washington Times, Drudge Report, Atlanta Constitution, Newsmax, the Blaze, and Brietbart are all untrustworthy sources?
No wonder left wing ideologues are so controlled by the media. All they have to do is not report something and slam the other news outlets.
What about the Cannibis Activist Network at ecannibis.com?
https://ecannabis.com/news/welfare-for-marijuana-sen-jeff-sessions-tackles-dispensary-loophole/
Which came first? After all these kids already showed a propensity for being willing to commit an illegal act(s) so were they already antisocial personalities, for instance. Seems like nothing more then more scare mongering parading as science.
Update: That satanic guy w/ horns implanted in his head is standing trial in Massachusetts. It’s day 3 of his trial and the jury gets to see him. That was the obvious ruling and the judge made it.
Correlation does not equal causation. Does smoking pot make kids more likely to drop out and commit suicide or do kids who are more likely to drop out and commit suicide also more likely to smoke pot daily?
Jim N – I think your disconnect came when you forgot they were following them as students but then continued to follow them as adults. So, a person could not use marijuana as a teen but later become addicted. It is not unheard of. The same happens with alcoholics. I never drank coffee until I was in my mid-20s. Now it is the only addiction I have.
I would venture to say that if you are smoking pot every single day, you’re probably already depressed, which means you’re less likely to finish high school and more likely to commit suicide.
I guess I was in the 40%…. Come to think of it…. Most of my friends were too..
David, Great link. I agree w/ you completely.
Cannabis should be legal but regulated because of its harmful effects and potential for abuse. However, I don’t like the idea that people on welfare can use their EBT cards to buy pot.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/sep/9/welfare-marijuana-jeff-sessions-tackles-loophole/
“the fact that even a monthly user has a four time greater likelihood of developing addiction to cannabis than someone who does not use it at all.”
Professor Turley, you need a proofreader – or a math consultant.
The likelihood (probability) of someone who “does not use it at all” becoming addicted is quite obviously zero. Four times zero is still zero.
I am a proponent of cannabis for medicinal and recreation use. There have been several US studies on the dangers of adolescents using cannabis. A key part of the brain is still forming in adolescents up to ~14-16 years old. REGULAR use of cannabis retards that important brain growth. It is vitally important to deter children under age 16 from using cannabis @ all. All I’ve read shows if you can delay it being used to that age these very serious consequences don’t occur. Proponents need to acknowledge this big problem and deal w/ it. And, unlike so many movements that try and bury bad news, the cannabis movement does not.
Here’s a question. What do you think a study would show if adolescents drank booze every day??
Well, thank goodness most teenagers are mature enough to moderate their intake of things like pot and booze.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
I’ll always remember the Lancet as the journal that published the vaccine/autism study that launched Jenny McCarthy and thousand acolytes.
I’m willing to bet that a high school student who uses marijuana daily has other and more important risk factors, such as missing parents who never told their kid to study and go to school.
It’s always hard to tell the direction of causality when studies quote such things.