Teenagers Who Smoke Marijuana Daily Are Seven Times More Likely To Attempt Suicide.

Teenagers who smoke marijuana daily are over 60 percent less likely to complete high school than those who never use. They're also 60 percent less likely to graduate college and seven times more likely to attempt suicide.

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/09/09/study-teens-who-smoke-weed-daily-are-60-less-likely-to-complete-high-school-than-those-who-never-use/?tid=rssfeed

What are TSR's marijuana users opinions on this?

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Reply 1

Ggmu!

It sounds like *******s.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 2

Implication

Original post by Ggmu!

It sounds like *******s.

Posted from TSR Mobile

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(14)70307-4/abstract

I heard it discussed on the radio as one of the most comprehensive studies on the subject in a while.. but I'm not familiar with the literature so :dontknow:

Reply 3

jimbo007

I guess you have to think about the type of people who do it daily- Everyone who I know who does it daily, have done very badly at school and are generally struggling in life. I don't think the drug is the actual cause of the suicide.

Reply 4

ESPORTIVA

not surprising. most chronic pot heads i know are all worthless wastes of space

Reply 5

TunaTunnel

Original post by ESPORTIVA

not surprising. most chronic pot heads i know are all worthless wastes of space

Amen.

Reply 6

viddy9

Of course, it could be the case that those less likely to complete school are actually more likely to smoke cannabis. Additionally, the article mentions other factors which could have influenced the results.

Reply 7

Implication

Original post by viddy9

Original post by jimbo007

They did control for this. I'm not sure exactly how since I don't have the full article (and probably wouldn't understand it if I did!), but here:

We recorded clear and consistent associations and dose-response relations between the frequency of adolescent cannabis use and all adverse young adult outcomes. After covariate adjustment, compared with individuals who had never used cannabis, those who were daily users before age 17 years had clear reductions in the odds of high-school completion (adjusted odds ratio 0·37, 95% CI 0·20—0·66) and degree attainment (0·38, 0·22—0·66), and substantially increased odds of later cannabis dependence (17·95, 9·44—34·12), use of other illicit drugs (7·80, 4·46—13·63), and suicide attempt (6·83, 2·04—22·90).

Reply 8

DiddyDec01

This is why you should use drugs in moderation, not habitually.

Reply 9

bananaminion

How about "teenagers who are more likely to commit suicide, are more likely to smoke marijuana daily"?

Reply 10

Fango_Jett

Original post by bananaminion

How about "teenagers who are more likely to commit suicide, are more likely to smoke marijuana daily"?

This.

The article never says that cannabis use causes suicidal tendencies or causes students to be less successful. I would assume that quite a large number of people would take illicit drugs like cannabis in response to failing school or depression.

Seems to be the Volvo effect to me. We could also say that 90% of people who commit suicide or failed school eat chocolate, and then assume that chocolate causes these two, but that would obviously be silly.

Reply 11

Huskaris

People Who Use A Capital On The First Letter Of Every Word Are Annoying.

Reply 12

Huskaris

Also, I never buy into the anti cannabis hysteria that people have. These people are generally ****ed up in the first place, idiots like that shouldn't ruin other people's enjoyment

Reply 13

anosmianAcrimony

Original post by Fango_Jett

Of everyone who ate pickles in 1890, there has been a 100% fatality rate. Aren't pickles awful?

Reply 14

anosmianAcrimony

Original post by bananaminion

How about "teenagers who are more likely to commit suicide, are more likely to smoke marijuana daily"?

That's certainly a good point, although the OP never claimed causation in either direction.

Reply 15

e aí rapaz

Correlation =/= causation

Reply 16

yo radical one

In the same way the government is extremely anti-cannabis in the most unscientific way, people here will refuse to believe any scientific study which doesn't present the substance as, at worst harmless and at best an amazing cancer-curing, IQ-enchancing, muscle-building wonderdrug.

Of the people I have known who were serious (rather than just casual) users, pretty much all of them either suffered from mental illness or generally had a lot of sadness in their lives, so it may well be that people who are already at risk of suicide use it to block out the pain and this might well be the cause, in which case it really should be viewed as a mental health issue rather than a criminal issue. However, it seems unlikely that there are no risks at all and people really should use their judgement and ask themselves if they have a family history of mental illness or generally lack self-control, is it really in their best interests to start the habit.

Reply 17

DErasmus

a study which doesn't agree with liberal agenda? Must be wrong, unscientific, correlation != causation etc...

Reply 18

yo radical one

Original post by DErasmus

a study which doesn't agree with liberal agenda? Must be wrong, unscientific, correlation != causation etc...

+1 actually

I'm not anti-drug per se, but people are so hypocritical in that they would fully accept a study which provides positive evidence of evolution, without really questioning it or attempting to find any holes or blind spots the researchers might have missed, but anything which is anti-drug will be met with hostility if not outright rejection.

(For the record, I do accept evolution, I was just using this to illustrate my point)