The effects of marijuana smoking

“ Smoke Weed in College and Your Grades May go to Pot”

In today’s society, there has been many views and opinions surrounding the topic of marijuana. The main controversy about the drug revolves around the question of whether it’s safe or dangerous. In this generation marijuana is mainly used by teens and adults, whether it’s for medical reasons, obtaining a high or “ sensation” feeling, or escaping life problems. This drug alone has impacted the lives of humans on a everyday basis, even though it’s not legalized. When thinking of marijuana it’s commonly known to be a negative factor and or downfall to the youth since it is a psychedelic drug. Marijuana is usually criticized by people that never studied the drug or know about the medicinal benefits. Within this article I read, a group of researchers looked into marijuana and what are the effects when college student partake in this drug.

Amelia Arria and her team studied that college students who smoke marijuana are more likely to skip class, which then leads to a lower GPA and delayed graduation. They also accounted for other factors, which includes students who drink and or use other drugs, involvement in sports and other extracurricular activities, and psychological factors such as depression. These studies were gathered by the 1, 100 college students that they followed for eight years. Within these studies they also looked at some personality traits, like the tendency to seek “ sensation”.

Another observation they came across was that smoking marijuana regularly may reflect a broader attitude amongst the college students. They felt as if the students may be less engaged in the college life, and may not be taking advantage of all the opportunities that are present. Amelia and her team didn’t just observe and state facts but also gave suggestions, such as the college academics center being more aware to the drug usage. She stated that when students do go to an academic assistance office, they hardly ask the about alcohol or drug use. This resulted in her suggesting that they ask students which might be enough to raise their awareness. “ If you ask students how often they are drinking, smoking, and partying this may help them be more self reflective and make better decisions.”

Another suggestion she gave was that parents should be aware of the connection between marijuana and skipped classes. She stated “ Parents need to know that their investment in college could be compromised by marijuana use.” Lastly, she gave a suggestion to policymakers stating that “ They may want to put academic consequences on the list of things to consider when they’re deciding whether to make marijuana legal.” Even though they were talking about the flaws and results of this drug usage they also had Paul Armentano, a person who group advocates for legal marijuana use, speak out. He too, had his own personal opinion on the policy implications.

These findings reinforce the need for sensible cannabis regulations that seek to better discourage the use of cannabis and they ready access of cannabis by young people. That’s a goal that criminal cannabis prohibition has failed to successfully achieve. He then later stated that “ Correlation is not causation, and is would not appear that there is anything unique to cannabis [marijuana] that would cause those who experiment with it to skip classes.” He felt that instead it was other traits such as a student’s tendency to “ rebel” or act against “ authority” were at work. With that being said, Armentano lastly added “ our society ideally wants to encourage young people to make healthy lifestyle choices, which includes mitigating their use of intoxicants and being able to discern between use and abuse.” Although Amelia and her team made great points and found accurate studies, there were severely rules that she broke within this article.

The first one that I want to focus in on is the statement about parents being aware of the relationship between marijuana and their kids. As shown previously she stated parents should be aware of the connection between marijuana and skipped classes. “ Parents need to know that their investment in college could be compromised by marijuana use.” The rule that is being broken here is Maxim of Manner. In first statement she says that parents should be aware that smoking marijuana and skipping classes go hand in hand. Then in the second part of the statement she says that parents should know that their investment in college could be compromised from marijuana use. What she’s saying is factual but it was how she delivered the information that lead you to be slightly confused of what she was trying to state. Even though she broke this rule within these statements alone it was a violation because she didn’t mean to. It was just her simply telling her thoughts but it wasn’t well strategized when trying to put it together.

Another rule she was broke within this article was Maxim of Quantity. Earlier in the article she stated that she found college students who smoke marijuana appear more likely to skip classes which leads to poor grades and later graduation. “ The findings in a journal, Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, do not prove that marijuana use was the root cause of students’ academic struggles” which was information she also gave. She then later stated that her and her team accounted for other factors which are drinking and other drug use, involvement in sports, other extracurricular activities, and psychological factors such as depression.

The reason being that she broke this rule was because we don’t fully know if smoking marijuana was even a factor for some of the students failing. Depression or the other drugs used could have been the cause for lower grades and or later graduation. She and her team depicted marijuana as it being the only cause for students and their academic struggles. Not only did she break this rule but she flouted in these statements as well. She and her team didn’t give a full report of what all played a part in students failing but blamed it on marijuana because of it’s already negative representation. Lastly, another rule that Amelia broke within this article was the Maxim of Relation. Arria and her team felt as if the variable of skipping class was important, because of the effect that it had on college students grades and attitudes who smoked regularly.

Shortly after this statement Armentano stated “ Correlation is not cautions, and it would not appear that there is anything unique to cannabis [marijuana] that would cause those who experiment with it to skip classes.” He then said it was more likely other traits, such as the student’s tendency to “ rebel” or act against “ authority,” that was the cause of this. The reason here as to why she broke this rule is because she said that marijuana is the cause of skipping class, then she has someone else stating that it’s other factors instead. She contradicted herself when stating Armentano factual information after her findings and or thoughts. With that being said she violated this rule because she was trying to prove one thing while giving information then later misconstruing it all. In conclusion this article had many rules broken as seen but nonetheless there are some points that I agree with.

Generally I overall disagree with what was stated by Amelia and her team. I felt as if this article was trying to scare people saying that their going to fail at this point in life because of weed. Marijuana is looked down upon because of the people who abuse it like Armentano said. I have witnessed many people throughout my life that smoke marijuana on a regular basis but still get there work done. I currently know upperclassmen that partake in smoking marijuana and they have astounding grades and are in many clubs on campus. They hardly missed class, still passed, and are still graduating by they’re projected date. Even though they were label “ Potheads” they knew there limits and still manage their priorities. I feel as if, if you let a drug hold you back from achieving in life then the person is at fault not the drug.

There are many CEO’s and businessmen that partake in smoking marijuana and they came out just fine and very successful. I personally believe that it’s all about self discipline when it comes to smoking marijuana. I’m not speaking for any other drugs but society tries to downplay marijuana usage when it’s actual used in the medical field. They give medical patients with cancer marijuana pills to help them eat since they tend lose and or not have a appetite, which might have been the case for some of those students. There has yet to be a report from someone dying or have a cancerous disease from smoking marijuana, which is even more reason why it should be legal.

Another reason why I think people try to downplay and or won’t legalize marijuana is because of the profit. Cigarettes is a cancerous product that they sell because the government has control of making it and selling it at their prices. Since marijuana is a plant and people can grow it they have no control over the profits and stopping people from smoking it. Just like other laws that are in place, people don’t always follow them or find loopholes, and that’s why marijuana is a big problem within the justice system. Citizens and even government officials complain about the high crime rate in American and marijuana being one of them. They are a lot of people that are currently locked up for years on this drug charge when there are bigger crimes to worry about. If marijuana were to be legalized then the crime rate would lessen and police wouldn’t have to worry about this specific drug selling.