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Effects of Heavy Marijuana
Use on Learning and Social Behavior
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Depression(1),
anxiety(2), and personality
disturbances(3)
have been associated with marijuana use.
Research clearly demonstrates that marijuana
has potential to cause problems in daily
life or make a person’s existing problems
worse. Because marijuana compromises the
ability to learn and remember information,
the more a person uses marijuana the more he
or she is likely to fall behind in
accumulating intellectual, job, or social
skills. Moreover, research has shown that
marijuana’s adverse impact on memory
and learning can last for days or
weeks after the acute effects of the drug
wear off(4, 5).
Students who smoke marijuana get
lower grades and are less likely to
graduate from high school, compared with
their non-smoking peers(6, 7, 8, 9). A study
of 129 college students found that, for
heavy users of marijuana (those who smoked
the drug at least 27 of the preceding 30
days), critical skills related to attention,
memory, and learning were significantly
impaired even after they had not used the
drug for at least 24 hours(10). The heavy
marijuana users in the study had
more trouble sustaining and shifting their
attention and in registering,
organizing, and using information than did
the study participants who had used
marijuana no more than 3 of the previous 30
days. As a result, someone who smokes
marijuana every day may be functioning at a
reduced intellectual level all of the time.
More recently, the same researchers showed
that the ability of a group of long-term
heavy marijuana users to recall words from a
list remained impaired for a week after
quitting, but returned to normal within 4
weeks(11). Thus, it is possible that some
cognitive abilities may be restored in
individuals who quit smoking marijuana, even
after long-term heavy use.
Workers who smoke marijuana are more
likely than their coworkers to have problems
on the job. Several studies
associate workers’ marijuana smoking with
increased absences, tardiness,
accidents, workers’ compensation claims, and
job turnover. A study of municipal
workers found that those who used marijuana
on or off the job reported more “withdrawal
behaviors”—such as leaving work without
permission, daydreaming, spending work time
on personal matters, and shirking tasks—that
adversely affect productivity and
morale(12). In another study, marijuana
users reported that use of the drug
impaired several important measures of life
achievement including cognitive abilities,
career status, social life, and physical and
mental health(13).
- Brook JS, et al: The effect of
early marijuana use on later anxiety
and depressive symptoms. NYS
Psychologist, January 2001, pp.
35-39.
- Green BE, Ritter C: Marijuana
use and depression. J Health Soc
Behav 41(1):40-49, 2000.
- Brook JS, Cohen P, Brook DW:
Longitudinal study of co-occurring
psychiatric disorders and substance
use. J Acad Child and Adolescent
Psych 37:322-330, 1998.
- Pope HG, Yurgelun-Todd D: The
residual cognitive effects of heavy
marijuana use in college students.
JAMA 272(7):521-527, 1996.
- Block RI, Ghoneim MM: Effects of
chronic marijuana use on human
cognition. Psychopharmacology
100(1-2):219-228, 1993.
- Lynskey M, Hall W: The effects
of adolescent cannibus use on
educational attainment: a review.
addiction 95(11):1621-1630, 2000.
- Kandel DB, Davies M: High school
students who use crack and other
drugs. Arch Gen Psychiatry
53(1):71-80, 1996.
- Rob M, Reynolds I, Finlayson PF:
Adolescent marijuana use: risk
factors and implications. Aust NZ J
Psychiatry 24(1):45-56, 1990.
- Brook JS, Balka EB, Whiteman M:
The risks for late adolescence of
early adolescent marijuana use. Am J
Public Health 89(10):1549-1554,
1999.
- Ibid ref 22.
- Pope, Gruber, Hudson, et al:
Neuropsychological performance in
long-term cannabis users. Archives
of General Psychiatry.
- Lehman WE, Simpson DD: Employee
substance abuse and on-the-job
behaviors. Journal of Applied
Psychology 77(3):309-321, 1992.
- Gruber, AJ, Pope HG, Hudson HI,
Yurgelun-Todd D: Attributes of
long-term heavy cannabis users: A
case control study. Psychological
Medicine 33:1415-1422, 2003.
More:
Thanks to National
Institute on Drug Abuse
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