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Drugs - Marijuana Dangers

The Dangers of Marijuana
Educational Impact

Overall High School Impact
 A six-year study (1994-99) of one high school that conducted 49 student school board disciplinary hearings for students possessing or being under the influence of marijuana during the school day found (1):

  • All students had serious school attendance problems.
  • All students were one or more years behind their classmates in academic progress towards graduation as a result of numerous class failures.
  • Those who at one time had been involved in sports or other extracurricular activities had dropped out once regular marijuana use began.
  • Teachers characterized all of the 49 students as apathetic and unmotivated.
  • Without exception, parents were not aware of the extent of the marijuana use by their son or daughter.
  • Every student had other serious disciplinary offenses including fighting, disrespect, and failure to follow school rules.
  • With few exceptions, these students negatively influenced their peers.
  • Not one student would disclose his or her source of the marijuana.

Cognitive Skills
Numerous studies have demonstrated that even infrequent marijuana use impairs cognitive skills (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8):

  • Marijuana impairs perception, judgement, thinking, memory and learning.
  • Memory defects may persist for six weeks or more after last marijuana use.
  • The ability to focus attention and filter out irrelevant information has been found by one study to become progressively worse the longer that marijuana is used.
  • The speed of information processing is delayed significantly, and the chronic build-up of cannabinoids produces both short- and long-term impairments of brain function.
  • The critical school skill of short-term memory is definitely impaired.

Attention Deficit Disorder
One well-done study provides significant evidence that marijuana use affects brain function and documents in an objective way what has been observed for decades: that marijuana produces an attention deficit disorder. This study provides evidence that increasing duration of marijuana use leads to progressively impaired information processing, which could lead to distractibility and impairment in any situation where concentration and focus of attention are essential. (3)

Athletics
Marijuana slows reflexes and coordination. It impairs the user's ability to judge distance, speed, and time. It also impairs peripheral vision. In addition to negatively impacting excellence in sports, these are skills important in computer courses, driving a vehicle, or operating equipment safely in a school laboratory or shop class. (8)

Attendance
Regular use of marijuana causes respiratory problems such as bronchitis, sore throat, and coughs ' all conditions that significantly impact school attendance and concentration while in school.8

Continued Impairment
One study demonstrated that it takes 14 days of abstinence before a user is able to control the processes of cognitive functioning, and it takes up to six weeks before a user is able to make complex intellectual decisions that are normal. (9)

Higher Level Thinking
Marijuana users have difficulty sorting out information, synthesizing and classifying information correctly, and understanding subtle shades of meaning. (9)

Amotivational Syndrome
Mental and emotional deterioration of users has been demonstrated in a number of studies. These clinical reports of personality change called ' amotivational syndrome' include passivity, aimlessness, apathy, and lack of ambition, as well as a lack of the ability to communicate. (10)

Dropouts, Failures And Disciplinary Problems
Alternative high schools serve students who are at risk for failing or dropping out of regular high school and students who have been removed from their regular high school because of drug use, violence, or other illegal activity or behavioral problems. Compared to results from the 1997 regular high school Youth Risk Behavior Survey, at all grade levels, the first National Survey of Alternative High School Students showed twice as many students reporting current marijuana use. In addition, the results demonstrated that "the prevalence of most risk behaviors (such as substance use, violence-related behaviors, and risky sexual behaviors) is higher among students attending alternative high schools compared with students at regular high schools." (12)

References

  1. Zion-Benton Township High School, Zion, Illinois. "A Study of 49 Students Expelled for Marijuana Violations." 1999.
  2. Hall, W. and Solowij, N. "Long term cannabis use and mental health." British Journal of Psychiatry. No. 171; pp. 107-108. 1997.
  3. Solowij, et al. Biol. Psychiatry. 37:731-739. 1995.
  4. Darley, C.F., Tinklenberg. J.R., Hollister, L.E., Atkinson, R.C. "Memory and Cognition." 1:196-200. 1973.
  5. Block, R.I. and Wittendorn, J.R. International Journal of the Addictions. 21:281-285. 1986.
  6. U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services. Marijuana: Facts for Teens. N.I.H. Publication No. 95-4037, 1995.
  7. Harvard University Medical School. Journal of the American Medical Association. Feb. 1996.
  8. American Council for Drug Education. "The Challenge, Focus on Marijuana." Vol. 7., No. 1. 1997.
  9. Lundquist. Life Science. Vol. 56, pp. 2145-2150. 1995.
  10. Bucknell University. Science and Technology. p. B2. Oct. 1998.
  11. The Best of IDEA, Winter, 1996. Day, et al., Neurotoxicology and Teratology 16:169-175, 1994.
  12. Cesar Fax, Center for Substance Abuse Research. Vol. 8, Issue 46. Nov. 15, 1999.

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