How Does Marijuana Affect Teenagers
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Marijuana is often talked about as if it were harmless, especially by people who use it themselves and feel fine. For teenagers, that picture is misleading. A teenager is not a small adult. The brain is still growing, still wiring itself up, and still learning how to handle memory, planning, feelings and self-control. That work goes on through the teenage years and into the early twenties. When marijuana enters the picture during that time, it does not just change how a young person feels for a few hours. It can interfere with the very jobs the brain is trying to finish, and the effects can show up at school, at home, in friendships and in mood. This article explains, in plain words, what health research and public health guidance say about those effects. It is general information only, not individual medical advice. If a teenager, a parent or a teacher is worried, a qualified health professional is the right person to talk to.
The main chemical in marijuana that changes how a person feels is called THC. It works by acting on a system in the brain that is involved in memory, attention, pleasure, appetite and the sense of time. In an adult brain, that system is already built. In a teenage brain, it is still under construction, and it is more easily thrown off balance. That is why the same amount of marijuana can have a stronger and longer-lasting effect on a teenager than on an older adult, and why regular use in the teenage years is linked with more problems than use that starts later in life. None of this means that every teenager who tries marijuana once will be harmed for life. It means the risk is real, it grows with how often and how much a person uses, and it is worth understanding honestly before anyone dismisses it.
Why the Teenage Brain Is More Sensitive
The teenage brain is busy with two big jobs at once. First, it is strengthening the connections it uses often and trimming away the ones it does not need, a bit like clearing paths through a garden so the useful ones stay clear. Second, it is building up the front part of the brain, the area that helps with planning, weighing consequences, resisting impulses and thinking ahead. That front part is one of the last areas to finish developing, and it is not fully mature until the mid-twenties. Until then, teenagers are naturally more impulsive, more sensitive to rewards, and less steady at thinking through long-term consequences. That is normal. It is part of growing up, not a fault.
Marijuana acts directly on the brain areas involved in this development. THC attaches to receptors that are spread widely through the brain, including the areas that handle memory and learning, and the front area that handles judgement. When those receptors are switched on again and again by regular use, the brain starts to adjust. It can become less responsive to its own natural signals, and the balance between feeling pleasure, feeling calm and feeling alert can shift. For a teenager, whose brain is still setting that balance, the shift can be harder to undo. Research that follows young people over years has found that teenagers who use marijuana regularly tend to show slower progress in some thinking skills than teenagers who do not, and the gap is larger when use starts early and happens often.
It also matters that teenagers are more likely to use in ways that raise the risk. They may use stronger products without knowing how strong they are, use with friends in social settings where it is hard to stop, or use to cope with stress, boredom or trouble sleeping. Each of those patterns makes regular use more likely, and regular use is where most of the harm is seen. A single experiment at a party is very different from using several times a week for months. The first may pass with little lasting effect. The second can quietly change how a young person learns, feels and behaves, often so gradually that nobody notices until school results or mood have already slipped.
Learning, Memory and School Work
One of the clearest effects of marijuana in teenagers is on learning and memory. THC makes it harder to form new memories while a person is under its influence, and it makes it harder to hold information in mind long enough to use it. A teenager who uses marijuana before school, or the evening before, may sit in class the next day and find that the lesson does not stick. They hear the words, but the details slip away. They read a page and have to read it again. They study for a test and cannot recall what they studied. This is not laziness. It is the brain struggling to store and retrieve information while it is still affected.
Over weeks and months of regular use, the problem can become more general. Teachers often notice it before parents do: homework is left unfinished, grades fall, a student who used to follow discussions now sits quietly, a student who used to finish work on time now needs constant reminders. Attention is part of the problem too. Marijuana can make it harder to focus on one task for long, to switch between tasks, or to ignore distractions. In a classroom, where attention is the basic tool for learning, that matters a great deal. A student can be bright and capable and still fall behind if they cannot concentrate long enough to learn.
The link with school results is one of the most consistent findings in this area. Studies that compare teenagers who use marijuana regularly with similar teenagers who do not find that the regular users, on average, get lower grades, are more likely to miss school, and are less likely to finish their education. It is important to be honest about what that does and does not prove. Marijuana may not be the only cause. A teenager who is struggling at school for other reasons may also be more likely to use marijuana. But when researchers account for other factors, such as family background and earlier school performance, the link with regular use is still there. The most sensible reading is that marijuana adds to the difficulty. It makes learning harder at exactly the age when learning matters most, and the lost ground is not always easy to win back.
Mood, Anxiety and Low Mood
Marijuana is often used because it makes a person feel relaxed, calm or happy for a short time. For a teenager who feels stressed, anxious or low, that short feeling can seem like a solution. The trouble is that the relief does not last, and the mood afterwards can be worse than before. As the effect wears off, many users feel flat, irritable or anxious. The next day, the original worry is still there, and now there is also tiredness, poor sleep or a low mood to deal with. If the answer is to use again, a cycle starts: use to feel better, feel worse afterwards, use again to feel better. Over time, that cycle can make anxiety and low mood more frequent, not less.
Health guidance is clear that regular marijuana use in the teenage years is linked with higher rates of anxiety and depression. Again, the relationship runs in both directions. Teenagers who already feel anxious or low may be more likely to try marijuana, hoping it will help. But regular use can also make those feelings worse, by changing how the brain handles stress and reward, and by disrupting sleep. Sleep is closely tied to mood, and marijuana use is linked with poorer sleep in teenagers. A young person who sleeps badly feels more anxious, finds it harder to cope, and is more likely to reach for something that promises quick relief. It is a loop that is easy to enter and hard to leave.
There is also a more serious concern that parents and teachers should know about. Regular marijuana use in adolescence, especially heavy use, is linked with a higher risk of psychosis, a condition in which a person loses touch with reality, hearing voices or holding beliefs that are not true. The risk is higher for teenagers who have a family history of psychotic illness, but it is not limited to them. The risk is also higher when use starts early and when the marijuana used is very strong. Psychosis is uncommon, and most teenagers who use marijuana will not develop it. But the link is real, it has been found in many studies, and it is one of the reasons health professionals take teenage use seriously. Any teenager who starts hearing things others do not hear, or who becomes deeply suspicious or confused after using marijuana, needs prompt help from a health professional.
Motivation and Everyday Habits
One of the changes families notice most is a slow loss of motivation. A teenager who used to play sport, practise an instrument, meet friends or work on a hobby gradually stops doing those things. They spend more time alone, or more time doing very little. They put off homework, chores and plans. They say they will do something tomorrow, and tomorrow never comes. This is sometimes called amotivational syndrome, but the plain description is simpler: the drive to start and finish things fades.
Part of this is about how marijuana affects the brain’s reward system. Everyday pleasures, like finishing a task, learning something new or playing a game, give a small sense of satisfaction. Marijuana gives a much stronger feeling of pleasure with no effort at all. When the brain gets used to that easy reward, ordinary rewards can start to feel dull by comparison. A teenager may still enjoy things, but the urge to begin them, to put in the effort, becomes weaker. That is not a character flaw. It is a change in how the brain weighs effort against reward, and it can make a young person look lazy when they are actually struggling with a brain that has learned to expect an easy high.
Habits matter here because the teenage years are when habits are formed. A teenager who spends a year or two doing very little, missing school, dropping activities and avoiding effort is not just losing time. They are missing the practice that builds skills, confidence and friendships. When they later stop using marijuana, they may find that their motivation returns, but they still have to rebuild the habits and the ground they lost. That is possible, and many young people do it, but it takes time and support. The earlier the pattern is noticed and the sooner help is sought, the easier that rebuilding is.
Friends, Pressure and Risky Choices
Teenagers care deeply about what their friends think, and that is normal. Belonging matters more in adolescence than at almost any other age. Marijuana use often starts in a social setting, offered by a friend at a party, after school, or in a group where saying no feels hard. A teenager who refuses may worry about being left out, teased or seen as boring. A teenager who accepts may feel accepted for a moment, but they have also taken a step into a pattern that can be hard to step back from. Peer pressure is not always open. Sometimes it is just the quiet feeling that everyone else is doing it, even when they are not.
Marijuana also affects judgement while a person is under its influence. It can make risks seem smaller and consequences seem further away. A teenager who would normally think twice about getting into a car with a driver who has been using, or about taking a risk they would usually avoid, may not think twice at all after using marijuana. Reaction time slows, coordination is worse, and the ability to judge danger is weaker. That combination is dangerous, especially on the road. Driving after using marijuana is a serious risk, and teenagers are already the group most likely to be involved in road accidents. Adding marijuana to that risk is a bad idea in every sense.
There is another risk that is less talked about but important. Teenagers who use marijuana regularly are more likely to use other substances as well, including alcohol and tobacco. That does not mean marijuana causes every teenager to move on to other drugs, and most do not. But the pattern is real: regular use in the teenage years is linked with a higher chance of developing a problem with alcohol or other drugs later. Part of the reason is social. The same friends, the same settings and the same habit of using something to cope can lead to other substances. Part of it is about the brain learning to rely on a substance to feel normal. Either way, it is a reason to take early use seriously rather than treating it as a harmless phase.
Sleep, Growth and the Teenage Body
Sleep is one of the first things marijuana changes in teenagers, and one of the last to be noticed. Many teenagers use marijuana because they think it helps them sleep. It can make a person feel drowsy and fall asleep faster, but the sleep that follows is often lighter and less restful. The deep sleep that helps the brain consolidate memory and repair itself is reduced. A teenager who uses marijuana regularly may sleep for many hours and still wake up tired, struggle to get up in the morning, and feel groggy through the school day. That tiredness then makes learning, mood and motivation worse, which makes the teenager more likely to use again to cope. It is another loop, and it is easy to miss because the teenager is technically sleeping.
Appetite is also affected. Marijuana is well known for increasing appetite, and teenagers who use it regularly may eat more snack food, eat at odd hours, and gain weight. Others may skip meals and eat poorly, because their appetite is only strong when they have used. Either pattern can make a growing body less healthy. Teenagers need regular meals, with enough nutrients to support growth, and a pattern of eating that is driven by marijuana rather than hunger can get in the way of that. Physical activity often falls too. A teenager who spends more time sitting and using, and less time playing sport or moving, loses fitness, and that loss feeds back into low mood and poor sleep.
The body is still growing during the teenage years, and that growth includes the lungs. Smoking marijuana, like smoking anything, irritates the lungs and airways. Teenagers who smoke marijuana regularly are more likely to have a cough, wheeze, chest infections and shortness of breath. The long-term effects of smoking marijuana on the lungs are less well studied than the effects of tobacco, but the short-term irritation is clear, and it is not something a growing body needs. Eating or vaping marijuana avoids some of the smoke, but it brings its own risks, including stronger and less predictable effects, and vaping products are not risk-free for the lungs either.
When Use Becomes a Problem
Not every teenager who tries marijuana develops a problem, but some do, and it is important to know what that problem looks like. The medical term is cannabis use disorder, but the plain signs are easier to recognise. A teenager needs more to get the same effect. They use more often than they planned. They try to cut down and cannot. They spend a lot of time thinking about, getting, using or recovering from marijuana. They keep using even when it is clearly harming their school work, their friendships or their health. They give up activities they used to enjoy. If several of those signs are present, it is a problem, and it is a problem that deserves help, not punishment.
Teenagers can become dependent on marijuana, even though many people believe that is not possible. The dependence is not the same as dependence on alcohol or heroin, and the physical withdrawal is usually milder. But it is real. A teenager who stops after regular use may feel irritable, anxious, restless, have trouble sleeping, lose their appetite, and crave marijuana strongly for a week or two. Those feelings are unpleasant, and they are one of the reasons people keep using. They are also a sign that the brain has adapted to regular use and needs time to readjust. That readjustment usually takes a few weeks, and it is easier with support from family, friends or a health professional.
The most important thing for parents, teachers and teenagers themselves to know is that help exists and it works. Talking to a doctor, a school counsellor or a drug support service is not a sign of failure. It is the sensible first step. Support often involves talking through the reasons for use, building other ways to cope with stress and boredom, and making a plan to cut down or stop. It does not have to involve medicines, and it does not have to be a long, formal process. What matters is that the teenager is not left to deal with it alone, and that the adults around them respond with honesty and patience rather than anger or shame. Teenagers who feel judged are less likely to ask for help. Teenagers who feel heard are more likely to listen.
What Parents and Teachers Can Do
Parents often ask what they should actually do if they suspect a teenager is using marijuana, and the honest answer is that listening comes before lecturing. A teenager who feels attacked will shut down, and a teenager who shuts down will not ask for help later when they need it. The first conversation should be calm, private and short. It should start with what the adult has noticed, in plain words, without guessing or accusing. Grades have fallen. Sleep has changed. Mood has changed. The teenager has stopped doing things they used to enjoy. Those are facts, and facts are easier to talk about than suspicions. The adult can then ask, simply, what is going on, and wait for the answer. Silence after a question is uncomfortable, but it is often the space in which a teenager decides to be honest.
It also helps to know the facts before that conversation. Many adults still believe old ideas about marijuana, either that it is completely harmless or that one use ruins a life. Neither is true, and a teenager will notice quickly if an adult is exaggerating. A teenager who hears an exaggerated claim will often dismiss everything else the adult says, including the true parts. It is far better to be honest about what is known and what is not known: regular use in the teenage years is linked with poorer learning, worse mood, worse sleep and a higher risk of dependence, and the risk grows with how often and how much a person uses. That is a serious message, and it does not need exaggeration to be taken seriously.
Teachers have a different but equally important role. They often see the changes first, in class, in homework, in attendance, in the way a student talks to friends. A teacher who notices a change and mentions it kindly to the student, or to the parents, can make a real difference. That does not mean a teacher should try to diagnose a problem or confront a student in front of others. It means noticing, asking a quiet question, and passing on a concern to the right person. Schools that have clear, fair rules about substance use, and that offer support rather than only punishment, tend to get better results. A teenager who is caught using and is helped is more likely to change than a teenager who is caught and simply punished and left alone with the same problems.
For teenagers themselves, the most useful thing to know is that saying no is a skill, and like any skill it can be practised. A short, firm answer is usually enough. No, I am fine. No, I do not want any. I have to go. A teenager does not owe a long explanation, and they do not need to argue. It also helps to have a plan for the situations that are hardest, such as a party where marijuana will be offered, or a friend who keeps pressing. Having one friend who does not use, or a way to leave early, or a reason ready in advance, can make the difference between a difficult moment and a decision that is later regretted. Teenagers who have thought about these moments in advance cope with them far better than teenagers who have not.
My Take:
I will be honest about where I stand on this. I do not think teenagers who use marijuana are bad people, and I do not think they should be treated as criminals or failures. Most of them are ordinary young people who were offered something by a friend, or who were looking for a way to relax, sleep better or feel less stressed, and who did not know enough about the risks to make a properly informed choice. Blaming them misses the point. The point is that they were making a decision about a developing brain with very little honest information, and that is a failure of the adults around them as much as anything else. If we want teenagers to make better choices, we have to give them better information, earlier, and in words they can actually understand.
What worries me most is how easily the harm is missed. A teenager does not wake up one morning suddenly unable to learn. It happens slowly. A grade slips a little. Homework takes longer. A hobby is dropped. Sleep gets worse. Mood gets lower. Each change on its own looks small, and each one has another possible explanation. Tiredness, stress, a difficult teacher, a bad week. By the time the pattern is clear, a year or two may have passed, and the teenager has lost ground that is hard to recover. I think that is the real danger of marijuana in the teenage years. It is not usually one dramatic event. It is a slow drift, and slow drifts are the hardest to notice and the hardest to reverse.
I also think the idea that marijuana is harmless has done a great deal of damage. It is true that marijuana is less dangerous in some ways than alcohol or tobacco, and it is true that many adults use it without obvious disaster. But those facts do not transfer neatly to teenagers. An adult brain is finished. A teenage brain is not. An adult who uses occasionally at the weekend is in a different position from a teenager who uses several times a week while trying to learn at school. When adults say marijuana is harmless, teenagers hear that it is harmless for them too, and that is simply not what the research shows. I would rather be honest: for adults, the risks are real but smaller. For teenagers, the risks are larger, and they fall on learning, mood and future chances.
The school question is the one I come back to most often, because school is where a teenager’s future is built. I have seen how much a few years of poor grades can cost a young person, not just in exam results but in confidence. A teenager who starts to believe they are not clever, when the real problem is that they cannot concentrate or remember what they studied, carries that belief for a long time. It affects what subjects they choose, what jobs they think they can do, and how they see themselves. That is a heavy price for something that began as a way to relax with friends. If a teenager is struggling at school and using marijuana regularly, I think the use should be one of the first things to look at, not the last.
Mood is the second thing I think about a lot. Teenagers already live with more anxiety and low mood than many adults realise. School pressure, social media, family worries, uncertainty about the future. It is a difficult age to live through even without any substance use. Adding marijuana to that mix, in the hope that it will make the feelings go away, usually makes the feelings worse over time. I understand why a teenager reaches for it. The relief is real, even if it is short. But I think we need to be honest that it is borrowed relief, and the debt is paid in worse sleep, worse mood and a harder time coping the next day. A teenager who learns to cope with stress without a substance is building a skill that will help them for life. A teenager who learns to cope only by using is building a habit that will follow them.
I am not in favour of scare stories, and I do not think they work. Teenagers can tell when they are being frightened rather than informed, and they stop listening. What I am in favour of is plain, honest talk. Here is what marijuana does to a teenage brain. Here is how it affects learning and memory. Here is what it does to sleep and mood. Here is the risk of dependence, and here is what dependence looks like. Here is what happens if you stop, and here is where to get help. That is a conversation a teenager can respect, because it treats them as a person who can think, not as a child who must be frightened into obedience. I think we should have that conversation far more often, and far earlier, than we do.
Parents have a harder job here than they are often given credit for. They are trying to protect a teenager who wants independence, who may not want to talk, and who may be angry when asked difficult questions. I think the parents who do best are the ones who stay calm, stay present, and keep the conversation open even when it is uncomfortable. A parent does not need to have all the answers. They need to be someone the teenager can come to when things go wrong. That means not overreacting to a first admission of use, not using shame as a tool, and not pretending the problem will go away if it is ignored. It also means setting clear boundaries. A teenager needs to know that their parents take this seriously, and that there will be consequences for regular use, but also that help is available and that asking for it will not be punished.
I also want to say something to teenagers directly, because this article is partly for them. If you are using marijuana regularly, and you have noticed that school is harder, that you are more tired, that your mood is lower, or that you have stopped doing things you used to enjoy, please take those changes seriously. They may not be caused only by marijuana, but marijuana may be making them worse, and cutting down or stopping is a reasonable thing to try. You do not have to do it alone. A doctor, a counsellor, a teacher you trust, or a parent can help, and asking for help is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign that you are paying attention to your own life, and that matters more than looking tough in front of friends.
If you have never used marijuana, I would say this: the easiest time to avoid a problem is before it starts. That sounds simple, and it is simple, but it is also true. Every teenager who has developed a problem with marijuana started with a first use, and most of them thought at the time that it would not become a habit. It is much easier to say no at the start than to stop after a year of regular use. That does not mean you should judge friends who use. It means you should protect your own learning, your own sleep and your own future, because those things belong to you and they are worth protecting. Friends who respect you will respect that choice.
Finally, I think we should be honest that recovery is possible, and that it is common. Teenagers who stop using marijuana regularly usually find that their concentration improves, their sleep improves, and their mood steadies over weeks and months. The brain is still young, and it can recover a great deal. The lost school ground takes longer to win back, and the lost habits take effort to rebuild, but they can be rebuilt. I have a lot of respect for young people who recognise a problem and do something about it, because that takes more courage than going along with a group. If you are a teenager reading this and you recognise yourself in it, that recognition is not a reason to feel ashamed. It is a reason to act, and the sooner you act, the easier it will be.
I also think about the friends a teenager loses or keeps during this time, because friendships shape so much of adolescence. A teenager who starts using regularly often drifts away from friends who do not use, not because of a single argument but because their days no longer fit together. One group is studying, playing sport or doing other things, and the other group is spending its time using and talking about using. Over months, the gap widens. The teenager may not notice it happening, and by the time they do, they may feel they have no other friends left. That is a lonely place to be, and loneliness itself makes it harder to stop, because the group that uses is the only group that feels familiar. I think adults should pay attention to this, because helping a teenager rebuild friendships outside the using group is often as important as helping them stop. A new activity, a new club, a new routine can give a teenager a different place to belong, and belonging is what they were looking for in the first place.
Sleep is another part I keep coming back to, because it connects to almost everything else in this article. A teenager who sleeps badly cannot learn well, cannot control their mood well, and cannot make good decisions. Marijuana promises better sleep, and for a short time it can feel as if it delivers, because it makes a person drowsy. But the sleep it gives is shallow, and the morning after is often worse. I think many teenagers would be surprised to learn that their tiredness, their morning grogginess and their trouble concentrating might be linked to the very thing they are using to help them sleep. It is a cruel irony, and it is one of the reasons I think honest information matters so much. If a teenager is struggling to sleep, there are better answers: a regular bedtime, less screen time late at night, exercise during the day, and a conversation with a doctor if the problem continues. Those answers are slower and less exciting than a quick fix, but they actually work, and they do not carry the same cost.
I also have a view about how we talk about strength and weakness in this area, because I think our language gets in the way. We call a teenager who refuses marijuana strong, and a teenager who uses it weak, and then we wonder why teenagers who use do not ask for help. Nobody wants to be called weak. The truth is more complicated. Refusing takes confidence, and confidence is hard to build when you are fourteen or fifteen and desperate to belong. Using does not mean a teenager is weak. It often means they were in a difficult situation, with little support, and they made a choice that seemed reasonable at the time. And stopping does not mean a teenager was weak before and strong now. It means they learned something, and they acted on it. I think we should talk about learning and support, not about strength and weakness, because that is the language that actually helps young people change.
There is a question I am asked often, which is whether parents should be strict or relaxed about this. I do not think either extreme works well on its own. A parent who is only strict, who punishes and forbids without listening, often pushes a teenager away, and the teenager simply learns to hide the use better. A parent who is only relaxed, who treats regular use as no big deal, leaves a teenager without the clear message they need. The parents I respect most are the ones who manage both: clear rules, clearly explained, and a willingness to listen when the teenager wants to talk. That combination is hard to hold, especially when you are worried and tired, but it is the combination that gives a teenager both a boundary and a safe place to come back to. A teenager needs to know where the line is, and they need to know that crossing it does not mean they have lost their parent’s love or help.
One last thing I want to be clear about is that I do not think this is a hopeless problem. Teenagers are resilient, their brains are still able to recover, and the help that exists is better than it used to be. I have seen young people turn things around after a difficult year or two, catch up at school, rebuild friendships, and go on to do well. It does not happen overnight, and it does not happen without effort, but it happens. The key, in my view, is noticing early, talking honestly, and getting help before the pattern becomes fixed. If you are a parent who has noticed a change, do not wait for it to get worse. If you are a teacher who has noticed a change, mention it. If you are a teenager who has noticed a change in yourself, trust that noticing. It is the first step, and it is a good one.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should I do if Marijuana is causing poorer exam results?
If marijuana seems to be linked with falling grades, the most useful first step is to stop using it and see whether concentration and memory improve over the next few weeks, while talking to a parent, teacher or doctor about the change. A teacher can help with catching up on missed work, and a health professional can help with a plan to stop and with any sleep or mood problems that are making study harder. Do not assume the grades will fix themselves while use continues, because regular use makes learning harder day after day.
How soon can mood swings during adolescence appear after using Marijuana?
Mood changes can appear within days or weeks of regular use, especially if a teenager is already feeling stressed, anxious or low. Some teenagers notice they feel more irritable or flat the day after using, while others find that their mood becomes more unstable over a month or two of regular use. The timing varies, but mood is one of the earliest things to change, and it is worth taking seriously rather than waiting to see if it passes on its own.
Does mood swings during adolescence from Marijuana go away after stopping?
For many teenagers, mood does improve after stopping, but it usually takes time. The first week or two can feel worse, because the brain is adjusting and sleep may still be disturbed. Over the next few weeks, as sleep settles and the brain readjusts, mood often becomes steadier. If low mood or anxiety continues for more than a few weeks after stopping, or if it was present before use began, a health professional should be asked for help, because there may be a separate mood problem that needs support.
Can Marijuana really cause riskier choices with friends?
Yes. While a person is under the influence of marijuana, judgement is weaker, reaction time is slower, and risks can seem smaller than they really are. That makes a teenager more likely to agree to something they would normally refuse, such as getting into a car with a driver who has been using, or taking a physical risk. The social setting matters too. Using with friends can make it harder to say no, and regular use can change which friends a teenager spends time with, which can lead to more risky situations over time.
Is poorer exam results from Marijuana dangerous?
Falling grades are not dangerous in themselves, but they are a warning sign that learning and memory are being affected, and that the teenager may be losing ground at school that is hard to recover. If poor results are ignored, the teenager may fall further behind, lose confidence, and drop activities or subjects that matter for their future. Anyone worried about a teenager’s school work and marijuana use should speak to a teacher and a health professional promptly, so the teenager gets help with both the learning and the use.
Who is most at risk of poorer exam results from Marijuana?
Teenagers who use marijuana often, who started using at a younger age, and who use stronger products face the highest risk. Teenagers who already struggle with attention, memory or school work, who sleep badly, or who use marijuana to cope with stress are also more likely to see their grades fall. The risk is not the same for everyone, but regular use during the school years is a risk for any teenager, and the more frequent the use, the greater the risk.
Sources
- National Institute on Drug Abuse — https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/cannabis
- U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration — https://www.dea.gov/drug-information
- Mayo Clinic, Drug addiction — https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/drug-addiction/symptoms-causes/syc-20365112
- World Health Organization, Substance abuse — https://www.who.int/health-topics/substance-abuse
- NHS, Drug addiction: getting help — https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/addiction-support/drug-addiction-getting-help/
This article is general information only. It is not medical advice. If you are worried about your health or about someone else, speak to a qualified health professional.
