Study: Teenagers Who Smoke Marijuana Daily Are 60 Percent Less Likely To Complete High School; 60 Percent Less Likely To Graduate College, and 700 Times More Likely To Commit Suicide

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