Marijuana use has been linked to poor performance in school!

[Sgt. Pepper]

I saw a huge ad in the New York Times today aimed at parents, trying to convince them to stop their kids from smoking weed or else they'll drop out of school and their hair will fall out or something. Then they hit you with some statistics to prove their point, that D students are 4 times more likely to have used marijuana in the past month than A students.

Ok, so this means that smoking pot causes bad grades, right? Well for those of you who haven't learned yet, statistics can be used to prove just about anything you want. This ad makes out pot to be a cause, and bad grades an effect. Now this may very well be true, but what if it goes deeper than that? What if pot use and bad grades are both symptoms of another affliction?

Now, I didn't use pot until the summer after I graduated high school (I'm a sophomore in college now), but the majority of kids who smoked pot and got bad grades in my high school had troubled home lives. For some kids I knew this to be a fact, but for others, it's just too obvious. The academic achievers (some of whom smoked weed) in my school were, by and large, from loving and intact families.

Now, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that when Dad is out of the picture and Mom is struggling with two jobs and is verbally abusive, getting high looks like a great idea. Such an environment doesn't exactly create the self-esteem and motivation needed to excel in school either. So does this make pot the cause of the problems in school?

Learn to pick out these half-truths in the anti-pot propaganda.

[Cacophony]

Its common knowledge to me which is why I'm amazed how many parents take it to heart.

[Sgt. Pepper]

The ads hit them where it hurts. Your children will be failures if they touch the devil weed. Talk about the children, it'll work every time.

[maskedpantsman]

maybe the bad grades cause kids to smoke weed, lmao.

[heavymetal101]

no weed didn't do this to them at all. it is definitely the family problems. because the whole i was in school i smoked since grade 7 and up and i was fine. i got A's B's C's and some D's but overall i did pretty damn good. people are just to ignorant to to know anything about weed. i bet the people saying that stuff have not yet once smoked it or even thought about the good side of weed. the only way to be truly intelligent about anything is to look at both sides of it. both the good and bad. if these people have obviously not looked at both sides or they wouldn't be saying that!

[SumSkater540]

weed doesnt cause bad grades, laziness and not caring are usually the reasons kids get bad grades. And who said those "D" students didn't startsmoking pot untill AFTER they got bad grades.

[seedbare]

far beyond grades the social aspect is far more important i believe, while the poor kids are running around stealing getting in trouble and doing drugs, the rich kids are going on skiing trips, involved in extra-curricular activities to bolster there resume for colleges and doing drugs, richer kids are involved in many more structured activities and are better equipped socially. so no its not the drugs its the parents and the money.

[maskedpantsman]

far beyond grades the social aspect is far more important i believe, while the poor kids are running around stealing getting in trouble and doing drugs, the rich kids are going on skiing trips, involved in extra-curricular activities to bolster there resume for colleges and doing drugs, richer kids are involved in many more structured activities and are better equipped socially. so no its not the drugs its the parents and the money.

well put-very true.

[sharpezor]

Yes i agree, well done !!!! You are one smart guy

[anycraic]

yeah all that 'weed makes u fail' is bullshit, just had a wake and bake at 7:30 a.m before heading off to daily lectures for a double honours degree, all the non smokers just talk shit whereas i get 'sucked into' what the tutor is saying, its great man if i was sober id be bored shitless, as it is im top of the class.
man i gotta friend thats been tokin 12 yrs and just graduated with a masters in phsycology......dont believe the bullshit....

[nickx760]

sexy chicks in high school leads to bad grades, they are so distracting...but i love it :D

[GHoSToKeR]

You're preaching to the converted, man.

[Ganj]

I saw a huge ad in the New York Times today aimed at parents, trying to convince them to stop their kids from smoking weed or else they'll drop out of school and their hair will fall out or something. Then they hit you with some statistics to prove their point, that D students are 4 times more likely to have used marijuana in the past month than A students.

Ok, so this means that smoking pot causes bad grades, right? Well for those of you who haven't learned yet, statistics can be used to prove just about anything you want. This ad makes out pot to be a cause, and bad grades an effect. Now this may very well be true, but what if it goes deeper than that? What if pot use and bad grades are both symptoms of another affliction?

Now, I didn't use pot until the summer after I graduated high school (I'm a sophomore in college now), but the majority of kids who smoked pot and got bad grades in my high school had troubled home lives. For some kids I knew this to be a fact, but for others, it's just too obvious. The academic achievers (some of whom smoked weed) in my school were, by and large, from loving and intact families.

Now, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that when Dad is out of the picture and Mom is struggling with two jobs and is verbally abusive, getting high looks like a great idea. Such an environment doesn't exactly create the self-esteem and motivation needed to excel in school either. So does this make pot the cause of the problems in school?

Learn to pick out these half-truths in the anti-pot propaganda.


edit

[Ganj]

of course...blame marijuana for your children dropping out. it wouldn't look too good if the media blamed the parents and the children. too bad. i dropped out because i was too focused on dicking around and not giving a damn that i dicked my way right to a g.e.d.

[Shane O Mac]

Thats bollocks because i know someone who was high whilst doin there exams n ge didnt get below a c in anything :D

[beachguy in thongs]

Yo, it just hit me that I've pulled a Ricky Williams before...and then was taken off the roster, for life.

[Storm Crow]

I think it is rather funny that they claim that smoking pot lowers grades. Last time around in college (graduated in 2001), I hung with the intellectual/stoner crowd. I don't think that any of us had lower than a "B" average. I wrote most of my papers stoned (although I cleaned them up straight) and graduated with honors and a 3.76 GPA. Doesn't seemed to have hurt MY grades.

[chisme]

5 words ....wot a load of bollocks][COLOR=Red]

[highjinx]

how come they let the kids be stoned in school....
new laws or people just lying again????

[goodtimmy]

I got baked virtually every day of my Junior and Senior years of high school and my grades were fine. The people I saw getting bad grades has no ambition to get a higher education, so high school didn't matter to them. A lot of the "dumbasses" who got bad grades and barely graduated, are now running million-dollar companies and pulling 6 figures per. Home life plays a factor, but the goals and expectations which come from the parents are just as important.

[Drugman Joe]

They only give half of the story, most students who get bad grades in high school have always gotten bad grades, reguardless of marijuana use. The same goes for behavioural problems that the government tries to link to herb.

I smoke almost everyday and have, throughout high school, kept the majority of my grades 80+.

Disproven.

[Ganj]

They only give half of the story, most students who get bad grades in high school have always gotten bad grades, reguardless of marijuana use. The same goes for behavioural problems that the government tries to link to herb.

just because the child got bad grades through school, it doesn't necessarily mean that the child is dumb. i had a lot of behavioural problems through school, couldn't keep my mouth shut, always challenging the teachers.

[Drugman Joe]

They only give half of the story, most students who get bad grades in high school have always gotten bad grades, reguardless of marijuana use. The same goes for behavioural problems that the government tries to link to herb.

just because the child got bad grades through school, it doesn't necessarily mean that the child is dumb. i had a lot of behavioural problems through school, couldn't keep my mouth shut, always challenging the teachers.

dude, did i say anything about anyone being dumb? No.

[mellow mood]

weed doesnt help to get good results at school when u smoke DURING it.just like if u come drunk at school.

but when u smoke out of the school its all good

[Lily420]

only if im realli fuckjing toatsed in math class. :D

^^ a cookie to anyone who can read this :D

[andy704]

um the top 2 ranking students at my school are sorta drug dealers and sell weed

[GHoSToKeR]

Where's my cookie? :D

[ermitonto]

This is a problem that often afflicts those who don't have a very good understanding of how statistics work. They assume that because two things have been shown to be correlated, they can say that factor A is the cause of factor B. If they find that pot smokers get lower grades on average, they jump to the conclusion that the pot is causing the bad grades, and to the layperson that's exactly what it looks like, so it makes for effective propaganda. But it must be understood that without data showing a direct link like that, it is equally plausible that the bad grades are causing the pot smoking, or that the bad grades and pot smoking both stem from a third factor of some sort.

For example, it could be that the kids who get better grades pay more attention to what their teachers say, so more of them have absorbed the teachers' anti-drug propaganda. Maybe the kids who get better grades are less likely to report their drug use for some reason. Maybe the kids who get lower grades come from poorer families, and poorer families are more likely to have drugs accessible to them. Maybe the kids who get lower grades have to put up with more bullshit from their teachers and feel more of a need to toke up.

Maybe it all boils down to Bill Hicks' theory:

They lie about marijuana. They tell you pot smoking makes you unmotivated. LIE!!! When you're high, you can do everything you normally do just as well ... you just realize it's not worth the fucking effort. "Sure, I could get up at seven, go to a job that I hate...for the rest of my life...*puff puff*...or I could get up at noon...and learn to play the sitar."

[420purplehaze420]

most likely that these kids had bad grades before they smoked weed thats what ive noticed

[mellow mood]

still im not gonna say weed helps ya gettin better results at school

i always smoked weed at school and had results over 80%, but if i wouldnt smoke id get over 90% lol

[ermitonto]

I myself don't notice much of a difference between my school performance when I go to stoned and when I don't. I've always done pretty well in my classes, because, well, I'm really smart (not to brag or anything, but practically everybody who knows me says I'm smart). I've had enough experience high that I can do pretty much anything high as well as I can do it sober, including paying attention in class, taking tests, etc. The only bad thing I can think of about going to class high is the short term memory. Sometimes you will forget what the teacher was just talking about, but if you just take notes that's not a problem at all.

[Ousted]

I've always done pretty well in my classes, because, well, I'm really smart (not to brag or anything, but practically everybody who knows me says I'm smart).

I dont know you, but I know you're fucking smart as hell. You probably need to smoke weed just to give that big brain of yours a break every now and then, smarty-pants. ;)

[Seag420]

i gota go against the grain here guys, i would of done better if i hadnt of got into the weed about a year before i took my exams. dont go a bite my head off for saying that, but for me personally i guess i became to focused on how i was gonna get stonned that evening, instead of concentrating on doing my homework on that evening. it wasnt the weed rotting my brain making me stupid, its was my obsession with the weed. me personally anyway