6) Teenagers under 17 who use cannabis daily are 60 percent less likely to complete high school or get a degree than peers who have never taken the drug, researchers said on Wednesday. They are also nearly seven times likelier to attempt suicide and are almost eight times likelier to use other illicit drugs later in life. The data, published in the journal The Lancet Psychiatry, comes from an analysis of three large, long-running studies in Australia and New Zealand.
Several recently published studies have established that marijuana use interferes with brain development, which continues until about age 25. Thus, the effects of marijuana use are the most pronounced in the group most likely to experiment with it.
One of the documented effects of marijuana use by young people is that it precipitates psychotic/schizophrenic disorders. Psychosis is often linked to criminality. Schizophrenia, of course, can cause complete disability.
My sense is that as the casualties grow in the form of increased numbers of young people incapable of doing anything productive, this vast experiment with legalizing marijuana will end.