There is much debate about the impact of adolescent cannabis use on intellectual and educational outcomes. British investigators assessed the relationship between adolescent cannabis use and IQ and educational attainment in a sample of 2235 teenagers.
After researchers adjusted for potentially confounding variables, such as childhood depression and cigarette use, they reported, “[T]hose who had used cannabis [greater than or equal to] 50 times did not differ from never-users on either IQ or educational performance.”
By contrast, teen cigarette smoking was associated with poorer educational outcomes even after researchers adjusted for other variables.
Researchers concluded, “In summary, the notion that cannabis use itself is causally related to lower IQ and poorer educational performance was not supported in this large teenage sample.”
Read the full report – Are IQ and educational outcomes in teenagers related to their cannabis use? The report was published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.