Marijuana Use: Is Your Teen’s Future at Risk?

Marijuana Use: Is Your Teen's Future at Risk?
Marijuana Use: Is Your Teen's Future at Risk? Credit | Getty images

United States: A recent study looked at how marijuana use affects teens in school. Researchers examined data from 63 studies with nearly 440,000 young people. They found that teens who use marijuana often get lower grades, are less likely to finish high school, go to college, or earn degrees. They also tend to skip school more and drop out of school. So, parents’ warnings about marijuana may be true!

The research was conducted by Li Wang, from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario and was published on 7th October in JAMA Pediatrics.

According to the research team, an efficiency study conducted in 2019 showed that a high of 22 percent of the U.S. high school students engage in marijuana use in the last month. Weed is also extremely much powerful compared to what it was in the 90s or even the 80s; while in 1995 the THC level was only 4%, by the year 2019, it was 14%.

As reported by the HealthDay, “Chronic use among adolescents has been found to cause more serious results which include changes in the brain structure; poor information processing and reduced cognitive, memory and attentive abilities in adulthood,” say the researchers.

Thus, to what extent might these impairments impact on students’ academic achievements?

To answer this, Wang’s group sampled data from dozens of studies on marijuana use and academic and employment outcomes of youth.

Some of the data was more reliable than others, but the researchers found “moderate-certainty” evidence that cannabis use in adolescence and young adulthood was linked to a:

  • Lower school grade with 39% higher odds
  • The participant group is 50 percent less likely to receive a high school diploma.
  • It means that the student is 28% less likely to be going to university.
  • Reduced by 31 percent the odds of completing a college degree.
  • Statistically significant increase in the likelihood of dropping out of high school to a multiple than two times.
  • Increases in school absenteeism by over than double the absenteeism.

His group also found “low-certainty evidence” that links cannabis use in youth with unemployment, Wang highlighted.

All these risks increased with the use of marijuana and if the use started early, at or before age 16, the study also revealed. They also said the findings do not mean that marijuana use directly leads to all these unhealthy outcomes are true.

For instance, youths with mental illness or other substance dependence disorders can be inclined towards cannabis use and poor academic performance, the team reasoned.

Still, they say their results were “adjusted for other substance use or mental disorders.”

What’s certain is that as the United States and other countries decriminalize marijuana use, and the public acceptance grows, uptake by the youth is surging.

U.S. national estimates indicate that more than 3 million youth aged 12 to 17 years have used the cannabis in the past year which is greater use than any other illicit drug Wang and some of his colleagues said.