Marijuana Use Tied to Worse School Outcomes for Teens

(HealthDay News) -- Generations of parental warnings may not be wrong: A massive study of available data finds teens who use marijuana have significantly worse outcomes at school.

Data from 63 studies involving almost 440,000 youths found "cannabis use during adolescence is probably associated with lower school grades; less likelihood of high school completion, university enrollment and post-secondary degree attainment; and increased school dropout rate and school absenteeism," according to Canadian researchers.

The study was led by Li Wang, of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and published Oct. 7 in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.

As the research team noted, one study found more than one in every five (22%) U.S. high school students reporting marijuana use at least once over the past month. Weed is also much more potent now than in decades past, with THC levels rising from 4% in 1995 to 14% by 2019.

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Editor's note: Take a moment to review the following statistics pertaining to marijuana use and educational outcomes, compiled by Smart Approaches to Marijuana.