Marijuana and Educational Outcomes September 26th, 2016
With Kevin Sabet, Ph.D . Co-Founder & President Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) and Gregg Raduka, Ph.D.,LPC, ICPS Executive Director Let’s Be Clear Georgia
Webinar Topics • Latest research connecting marijuana use and decreases in IQ • Latest research connecting marijuana and school performance • How the effects of marijuana compare to alcohol’s effects on school outcomes • Recent educational outcomes of Colorado's marijuana "Experiment" with children's and teens' academic careers • Marijuana Statistics from the Georgia Student Health Survey 2.0 • Questions and Answers
Cessation of substance use is associated with improvement in academic performance and school attendance.
“Stopping out” – Gaps in College Enrollment
N EUROBIOLOGICAL C ONSEQUENCES OF A LCOHOL USE In adolescents, heavy alcohol use is associated with: • Structural and function changes in the brain • Differences in sleep patterns • Poor planning • Impaired executive functioning • Spatial deficits • Attention deficits
N EUROBIOLOGICAL C ONSEQUENCES OF Marijuana USE Acutely, marijuana use is associated with: • Attention and concentration difficulties • Decreased working memory • Decreased information processing • Decreased decision response speed • Longer- term… • Impaired planning, organizing, and problem solving • Deficits to allocation of attentional resources and filtering out irrelevant material • Retrieval and immediate verbal memory deficits
N EUROBIOLOGICAL C ONSEQUENCES OF Marijuana USE • Deficits are more likely when • marijuana use is initiated earlier in • life and when use is more frequent. • Early chronic marijuana use is • associated with declines in IQ of up to 8 points. • (Corresponds to a drop from the 50 th to 30 th percentile)
What we suspect… Marijuana and other drug use might be driving academic problems, and nonmedical use of prescription stimulants is a compensatory behavior… a shortcut, and largely unsuccessful.
Data from The Legalization of Marijuana in Colorado: The Impact Vol. 4 /September 2016 from the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Youth Marijuana Use in Colorado • Youth past month marijuana use increased 20% in the 2 year average (2013/2014) since Colorado legalized recreational marijuana compared to the 2 year average prior to legalization (2011/2012).
More from Rocky Mountain HIDTA Report • Colorado youth past month marijuana use for 2013/2014 was 74% higher than the national average compared to 39% higher in 2011/2012 . • The latest 2013/2014 results show Colorado youth ranked #1 in the nation for past month marijuana use, up from #4 in 2011/2012 and #14 in 2005/2006.
Colorado School Data The Colorado Department of Education began collecting marijuana violations separately from all drug violations during the 2015-2016 school year. “In school year 2015/2016, 63% of all drug related suspensions were for marijuana violations.” “In school year 2015/2016, 58% of all drug related expulsions were for marijuana violations.” “In school year 2015/2016, 73% of all drug related referrals to law enforcement were for marijuana violations.”
More from the Colorado HIDTA Report • The top ten states for the highest rate of current marijuana youth use were all medical marijuana states • whereas the bottom ten were all non-medical marijuana states.
Source: The Colorado Department of Education
Georgia Student Health Survey 2.0 Georgia Dept. of Education 54. During the past 30 days, on how many days did you use marijuana or hashish? 14.0% of high school seniors reported having used marijuana at least once in the last 30 days during the 2014-2015 school year. 12.2% of high school seniors reported having used marijuana at least once in the last 30 days during the 2015-2016 school year.
• More GSHS 2.0 Data • 104. How much do you think people risk harming themselves, physically and in other ways, if they smoke marijuana once or twice a week? • Even though the question now refers to smoking 4-8 times per month, Georgia High School Senior data reveal the following: No Risk – 40.7% Slight Risk – 19.3% Total - 60.0% no risk or slight risk from 2015-2016 State Report No Risk – 39.9% Slight Risk – 20.0% Total - 59.9% no risk or slight risk from 2014-2015 State Report
108. How wrong do your parents feel it would be for you to smoke marijuana? Not at all – 11.8% A little bit wrong – 7.9% Total: 19.7% or almost 1 in every 5 2015-2016 State Report Not at all – 11.6% A little bit wrong – 8.4% Total: 20.0% 2014-2015 State Report
Questions and Answers After the webinar has ended questions for Dr. Sabet or Dr. Raduka can be emailed to admin@ClearGA.org Thank You for Attending!
Recommend
More recommend
