Cannabis Smoking Makes Students Less Likely To Pass University Courses

Bruce66423 writes: A large scale European study shows that students who were unable to buy cannabis legally were 5% more likely to pass their University courses. Below-average students with no legal access to pot were 7.6% more likely to pass their courses, and the effect was five times more pronounced when dealing with courses involving math. One of the study's authors said, "We think this newfound effect on productivity from a change in legal access to cannabis is not negligible and should be, at least in the short run, politically relevant for any societal drug legalization and prohibition decision-making. In the bigger picture, our findings also indicate that soft drug consumption behavior is affected by their legal accessibility, which has not been causally demonstrated before. ... Considering the massive impact on cognitive performance high levels of THC have, I think it is reasonable to at least inform young users much more on consequences of consuming such products as compared with that of having a beer or pure vodka."

Comments

Marijuana's capacity to REVEAL TRUTH

[Anonymous Coward]

So, the 5% of people who smoked weed at university, and realized university is a RE-EDUCATION CAMP where special educational tools are used to break the most dangerous young minds and prepare them for a life of productivity in service to the Man. *bong smoke floats out of my stained beanbag nest.*

Re:Marijuana's capacity to REVEAL TRUTH

[Bengie]

Society is ethically obligated to take care of its own, it's part of the social contract. So no, evolution won't take care of them, the tax payers will.

Re:Marijuana's capacity to REVEAL TRUTH

[Opportunist]

Interesting that this part of the "social contract" only applies to bans and prohibitions in the minds of the right but they suddenly become very vocal on "self reliance" and "personal responsibilities" when it comes to funding for college educations for underprivileged students.

Re:Marijuana's capacity to REVEAL TRUTH

[garyisabusyguy]

Sure, just try and talk to them about a social contract to reduce the harm that comes from widespread ownership of firearms

Re:Marijuana's capacity to REVEAL TRUTH

[cold fjord]

Sure, just try and talk to them about a social contract to reduce the harm that comes from widespread ownership of firearms

Widespread legal ownership of firearms isn't a problem. The problem come from illegal possession and misuse of firearms.

The spread of concealed carry laws shows that law abiding citizens aren't the issue. Incidents among citizens licensed for concealed carry of firearms are rare, contradicting the predictions of doom from some.

In your version of the social contract the strong can be predators while the old or infirm are defenseless. No thanks.

Re:Marijuana's capacity to REVEAL TRUTH

[Shakrai]

Sure, just try and talk to them about a social contract to reduce the harm that comes from widespread ownership of firearms

You could replace 'firearms' with 'free speech' and find Great Powers (the PRC and Russia) that are sympathetic; somehow I doubt you'd be willing to emigrate there though. I also suspect that you'd be looking at a -1 mod right now, rather than +5, since your contribution to the discussion would be both offtopic and flamebait.

Even if I accepted your premise about the social cost of gun ownership (I don't, violent crime in the US has continued to drop for decades, even as gun laws have been largely liberalized) it would not change my opinion about firearms ownership. Self-defense is an inherent human right, one that can not be exercised effectively without weaponry that negates disparities in physical strength, numbers, or size. The right of self-defense is recognized in the United States by the 2nd Amendment, as well as Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Re:Marijuana's capacity to REVEAL TRUTH

[Opportunist]

It may surprise you, this coming from a "leftie" (aka European citizen), but I am actually in favor of private gun ownership.

I just wish people who want to own one can spend a week with my old drill sarge. he sure knew a few things about safe gun handling and I'm glad he shared them with us.

I'm gonna go out on a limb.

[queazocotal]

And say that availability of alcohol has a vastly higher effect than 5%.

Re:I'm gonna go out on a limb.

[gewalker]

Well, had you read the article ...

“The effects we find are large, consistent and statistically very significant,” Marie told the Observer. “For example, we estimate that students who were no longer able to buy cannabis legally were 5% more likely to pass courses. The grade improvement this represents is about the same as having a qualified teacher and, more relevantly, similar to decreases in grades observed from reaching legal drinking age in the US.”

So, about the same.

I thought we already knew the academic impact of canibus use from the documentary Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Re:I'm gonna go out on a limb.

[l0ungeb0y]

Due to my own empirical observations, I would have to disagree. In my late teens and early twenties when studying liberal arts, philosophy and making my living as an illustrator and animator, I rarely drank but would smoke weed pretty frequently and maintained a 3.6 to 4.0 GPA without even trying.

However, when I decided to teach myself to code a few years later, I found the weed really got in the way, so bought some beer and found I could drink a fair amount of beer and still grok the info I needed and retain it. As such, I stopped smoking weed and started drinking for my recreational pleasure.

Re:I'm gonna go out on a limb.

[garyisabusyguy]

Meanwhile, students who were incarcerated for possession of marijuana, or who lost their student loans for a marijuana arrest were 100% less likely to pass their university courses

Re:I'm gonna go out on a limb.

[geoskd]

What is interesting is how alcohol is often seen as part of "college life" but that's exactly the period of your life when you shouldn't be drinking much at all to be able to think clearly.

You, like many others mistakenly believe that the point of college is to get an education. In my estimation (as someone who has been involved with hiring for many different positions) A College degree (even from prestigious schools) is a poor indicator of intelligence, or ability. People who are capable, will learn from whatever source is available (And google is a much better source than all but a handful of professors). People who are not capable of learning on their own *must* go to a university to get an education, but these people make lousy employees, as they can never handle anything outside of the ordinary, and consequently are no better than ditch-diggers. Even the best schools in the world cant teach independent thinking. By the time a person gets to college, they either have it or they never will.

You show me someone who graduated school while attending less than half their classes, and I'll show you someone who will be successful at whatever you give them to do. (This goes double for B.S. degrees).

College is 100% about networking and creating relationships (both personal and professional). To that end, college social activities (including drinking) are an invaluable part of the experience. After all, its not about what you know, its about who you know.

Re: I'm gonna go out on a limb.

[kevinking.psyd]

No, not really. There are plenty of introverted people (i.e., not networkers) who learned valuable skills and got jobs based on knowledge gained in college. This is so blatantly obvious that I'm not even going to bother citing sources (a skill I learned in college). The burden of proof is on you. I will put this out for you though: do you really want a surgeon who skipped half of her classes operating on you? Do you really want your pediatrician diagnosing your childs illness based on google searches?

Re:I'm gonna go out on a limb.

[garyisabusyguy]

I do not think that using marijuana and murder are remotely similar

The question raised in this study is the effect of legal marijuana, I am pointing out that criminalization of marijuana also has an impact on student performance

Why are prohibitionists so quick to resort to insults?

Re:I'm gonna go out on a limb.

[Gavagai80]

That's because you were studying liberal arts. Switching my major from computer science to philosophy took me from a 2.4 GPA to a 3.9 GPA overnight while eliminating the need for me to study.

This is a great argument!

[Stickasylum]

Television, video games, beer, and anything else potentially distracting to poorly performing students should be illegal too!

unreal

[Lehk228]

playing too much unreal took way more than 5% off of my grades.

i didn't start using cannabis regularly until after college, it's vastly superor to alcohol in the "how functional am i at work the next day if i overindulge" department.

Re:unreal

[PolygamousRanchKid]

playing too much unreal took way more than 5% off of my grades.

playing with myself took way more than 5% off of my grades.

Re:unreal

[sensei moreh]

I found out during high school that I couldn't do Calculus while stoned; it was something I had to work around back then. Eight hours of sleep would clear it right out... Not so much a problem anymore; and I still do Calculus daily. :)

Well, if you'd lay off the cannabis, maybe you'd finally pass calculus :)

Um...obvious?

[bradley13]

Ok, what am I missing? I mean, this seems obvious.

Being stoned, just like being drunk, has kind of an obvious affect on your current cognitive abilities. For both drugs, you are looking a a time-frame of hours where you cannot study or work effectively. TFA even notes that the magnitude of the effect on grades is similar.

If you drink alcohol or smoke pot on nights when you need to be studying, your grades are going to suffer. If you restrict yourself to times when you really don't have any obligations, then there won't be a problem. Young adults being, well, young adults, they may not always have the necessary self-awareness and self-discipline - hence, their grade may suffer while they are learning this life lesson.

Make sure people are aware of the effects of the drugs. Encourage self-control and self-discipline. Prohibition is, and has always been, a non-solution.

"This, they argue, is not that surprising."

[nedlohs]

I find it quite surprising.

Sure being a pot head is going to have a detrimental effect on your grades.

But given my experiences with university in a place where marijuana was not legal I can't believe there are enough students who would not smoke when it is illegal but would when it is legal to swing the overall grade by 5%.

Re:"compared to beer or vodka"

[garyisabusyguy]

No, legalization of marijuana is less harmful than criminalization

In a long term study in Australia, comparing the effects of marijuana use in colonies that legalized and criminalized marijuana it was found that there was far worse long term outcomes int he colonies that criminalized marijuana

This is because they lost opportunities such as education, faced poor job prospects and turned to life as petty criminals to earn a living.

These effects were not seen in colonies that legalized marijuana, where users were able to gain education, jobs and go on to lead a normal life

Criminalization is more harmful than legalization

It is the prohibitionists that want to hold up the straw man argument of 'harmless' because it is easier to poke holes in

Re:Once again Correlation != Causation

[Khashishi]

Studies don't prove things. Studies fail to disprove things. Correlation doesn't imply causation, but it certainly is consistent with a theory of causation. It's also consistent with the theory that the purported effect is actually the cause, and the cause is the effect.