New study highlights harmful effects of cannabis use on young teens

Young people who smoke cannabis regularly are 60% less likely to finish school or get a degree than those who have never used the drug, according to new research published today in The Lancet medical journal.
The results of a long-term study in Australia and New Zealand also show that teenagers who use cannabis daily are 18 times more likely to become dependent and are eight times more likely to use other drugs in later life.
Details of the review of almost 4,000 cannabis users, also found that daily users in their teens are saevn times more prone to suicide attempts.
"We recorded clear and consistent associations and dose-response relations between the frequency of adolescent cannabis use and all adverse young adult outcomes," said Dr. Edmund Silins, from the University of New South Wales in Australia, lead author of the latest report.
"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 and degree attainment, and substantially increased odds of later cannabis dependence, use of other illicit drugs and suicide attempt."
Last month, a Eurobarometer survey found that the percentage of Irish young people who admit to using cannabis is more than twice the European average.
"There does appear to be a strong line between early cannabis use and the use of other illicit drugs later in life," Dr Silins said.
"And that association remains even after we take into account other factors which might explain the link.
"So that's a very important aspect of the findings, because what it means is that that link couldn't be explained by differences in the family background or childhood experience of cannabis users and non-users."