Smoking Pot Ruins Your Chance for Successful Adulthood

A recent study of twins discovered that the use of cannabis or smoking pot could affect a child’s future chances of getting a better job with a handsome salary and limit a child’s education. These findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal on March 29.

According to the study, teens who use marijuana than identical twins are less likely to perceive better jobs with better pay than their sisters and brothers.

A New Study Claims Smoking Pot May Destroy Children’s Adulthood

It is not because they use smoking pots that could cause irreversible harm to their growing brain. Scientists discovered no evidence that this could cause permanent damage to children’s memory, thinking skills, or mental health from using marijuana.

Twins who smoked more pot performed poorly in school, which directed them on a tough life path moving forward, explained Jonathan Schaefer. He was a lead researcher and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Minnesota’s Institute of Child Development.

According to researchers, teenagers who had a lower GPA, on average, underwent less academic success and more discipline issues and were more likely to spend time with antisocial people.

Schaefer stated, “These study findings suggest that when you’re talking about long-term effects of adolescent cannabis use, they may be limited to short-term drug effects with longer-term impacts.” He further added, “It could be the case that cannabis use causes temporary decreases in motivation, which leads your teen to get poorer grades, which eventually leads to lower educational attainment.”

In this study, Schaefer and his colleagues examined the data on 2,410 identical twins picked from 3 different long-term types of research from the Minnesota Center for Twin and Family Research.

Schaefer said that several studies had combined early pot use to negative results later in life, but this previous study couldn’t eliminate other factors that may affect mental health, success, or impaired reasoning skills.

These identical twins have the same genetics, environment, and family background, so examining twins may help scientists figure out other possible factors.

Twins who use more cannabis in adolescence tend to experience the worst socioeconomic outcomes, especially in education. At the same time, they didn’t suffer from higher rates of diagnosable mental health issues. Scientists couldn’t discover any proof of low cognitive ability.

Marijuana legalization in the USA led parents and teens to use more smoking pot as if it is harmless. But a study like this wanted to end the addiction. Richter noted, using pot can harm regions of the brain connected with memory, learning, and attention.

Richter described, “This study and prior research suggest that while these effects might not last once cannabis use stops, the short-term impact of cannabis on the brain functions critical for academic success can have downstream effects.”

Suppose a kid faces academic challenges or difficulties because of cannabis use during middle and high school. In that case, it may reduce the quality and quantity of post-secondary education and vocational training and experiences. Hence, success in adulthood, she stated.

Several good-paying jobs need drug testing, which may discourage young adults who like marijuana from getting fruitful careers in those sectors, explained Paul Armentano, deputy director of NORML. Instead, they could choose service industry work where they don’t need to give drug testing.

Armentano stated that being involved in marijuana can mark a teen’s record that may restrain their ability to attend college financially or get job opportunities.

Armentano continued, “Finally, consideration should have been given by the authors to the possibility that those most likely to consume cannabis may simply wish to pursue job opportunities in fields that pay less or are less conventional, at least early in life.”

“This could include endeavors like working for the Park Service, the Peace Corps, nonprofit advocacy, etc. It seems to be a great oversight to me that none of these potential variables were mentioned.”