A new large scale study of cannabis use has found that those who consume the drug before the age of 17 are two thirds less likely to complete secondary school than those who never used the drug.
www.irishtimes.com/news/health/teen-cannabis-users-less-likely-to-finish-school-get-a-degree-1.1923398
www.irishtimes.com/news/health/teen-cannabis-users-less-likely-to-finish-school-get-a-degree-1.1923398
The research, which was published in the journal Lancet Psychiatry, revealed that those who use cannabis daily during adolescence are seven times more likely to attempt suicide.
The study was carried out by a team of Australian and New Zealand researchers.
It involved an analysis of data from more than 3,700 cannabis using participants in three large long-running pre-existing studies.
It found strong associations between the use of cannabis during adolescence and what happened to the participants in early adulthood.
It also discovered the risks faced increased relative to the amount of cannabis consumed, with daily users facing the strongest negative effects.
Those using the drug daily face an 18 times greater chance of being dependent on it, for example, and are eight times more likely to use other illegal drugs later in life.
The study found that those who use cannabis before the age of 17 are 60% less likely to finish school or obtain a degree.
The authors said the findings provide strong evidence that the prevention or delay of cannabis use is likely to have broad health and social benefits.
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*Young people who smoke cannabis regularly are 60% less likely to finish school or get a degree than those who have never used the drug, according to new research published today in The Lancet medical journal.
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*Young people who smoke cannabis regularly are 60% less likely to finish school or get a degree than those who have never used the drug, according to new research published today in The Lancet medical journal.
The results of a long-term study in Australia and New Zealand also show that teenagers who use cannabis daily are 18 times more likely to become dependent and are eight times more likely to use other drugs in later life.
Details of the review of almost 4,000 cannabis users, also found that daily users in their teens are saevn times more prone to suicide attempts.
"We recorded clear and consistent associations and dose-response relations between the frequency of adolescent cannabis use and all adverse young adult outcomes," said Dr. Edmund Silins, from the University of New South Wales in Australia, lead author of the latest report.
"After covariate adjustment, compared with individuals who had never used cannabis, those who were daily users before age 17 years had clear reductions in the odds of high-school completion and degree attainment, and substantially increased odds of later cannabis dependence, use of other illicit drugs and suicide attempt."
Last month, a Eurobarometer survey found that the percentage of Irish young people who admit to using cannabis is more than twice the European average.
"There does appear to be a strong line between early cannabis use and the use of other illicit drugs later in life," Dr Silins said.
"And that association remains even after we take into account other factors which might explain the link.
"So that's a very important aspect of the findings, because what it means is that that link couldn't be explained by differences in the family background or childhood experience of cannabis users and non-users."
------------ www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/
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