Live data from Hacker News

Cannabis Access and Academic Performance

cee.lse.ac.uk

71–80 of 116 posts

Re: Cannabis Access and Academic Performance

#71
"We find that the academic performance of students who are no longer legally permitted to buy cannabis increases substantially."

Pfft.

For my own case, when I smoke cannabis, my brain becomes hyperactive. I want to resolve all of my codesmell at once. I want to finish all of my code at once. My writing becomes "electric". My writing becomes transcendental and on fire — why do I become electric, yet all of these students become unmotivated globs? Tell me why this is the case before you moralize and vilify such a beautiful plant!

So maybe it's me. Or maybe the lot of you just don't know how to smoke and ritualize the practice. Maybe you all have a flawed philosophy to begin with, or worse, you don't have a philosophy about what you're smoking — to begin with.

As Kafka notes:

The unfitness of the object may cause one to overlook the unfitness of the means. — Franz Kafka

Re: Cannabis Access and Academic Performance

#72

   A first step is to have an idea of baseline consumption
   rates for the particular group of individuals who were affected by the policy. To obtain rough
   estimates of these rates, we carried out an anonymous survey among currently enrolled
   students at Maastricht University. To make the question about cannabis consumption less
   Although these are different students to the ones on which we have performance data that we use in the rest of
   the analysis, their baseline consumption rates are relevant for two reasons. First, their demographic 
   salient, we embedded it in a more general questionnaire on risky behavior. In total, 192
   students answered the survey, which is over 97 percent of the students present in the lectures
   where it was distributed. The survey question we focused on asks students if they “have ever
   smoked cannabis or hashish” and if so, when: “ever”, “in the last 12 months”, “in the last 30
   days” or “in the last 7 days”.
all ridicule of the data used aside.. they fail completely to address dose

give a kid 2400mg of ibprofen and see how well children function on 'numerical skills'

Re: Cannabis Access and Academic Performance

#73
So is there evidence of this in states where cannabis access has been legal/decriminalized for at least a decade like California, Washington, and the Netherlands as a whole? It sounds like a significant portion of students from those states should be consistently underperforming each year compared to other states and to students before legal access was allowed.

Re: Cannabis Access and Academic Performance

#74
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this teacher should take this as an opportunity to examine what it is he, and the institution he works for is offering these students as an alternative, and consider the students are making rational choices that serve them better. We know from the Rat Park study that rats in an enriched environment full of positive social engagement and freedom do not choose morphine. [1] If the students are choosing drugs, i…

Frankly I'm very skeptical about the idea that people don't use drugs when fulfilled. There's always stress in modern life, and drugs are always attractive at some level

Sure, but that's sort of the point. They are attractive but if you have access to something better then you'd rather be doing that.

Edited for clarity

Re: Cannabis Access and Academic Performance

#75

I think things like drugs and alcohol are worse for growing brains. From a NYC teacher (One reference point) "I’ve taught high school for 25 years and I hate what marijuana does to my students. It goes beyond missing homework assignments. My students become less curious when they start smoking pot. I’ve seen it time and time again. People say pot makes you more creative, but from what I’ve seen, it narrows my student…

I think our modern education system has done more to blunt people the curiosity of young people then these drugs possibly could.

I see what you did there.

Re: Cannabis Access and Academic Performance

#76
post #43

The real concern with this study is not the possible negative effects of marijuana (which are already known) but the moral correctness of its legalization. I personally have not and never will smoke pot, but that doesn't mean I support the continuing ban in America. Everyone has the right to determine his own destiny, and if engaging in personally (but not socially) destructive behaviors like smoking pot is a person'…

I agree people should have the right to determine their own destiny. Earth, however, isn't a free planet. Show me a country with sovereignty and I'll show you the Bilderberg, World Bank, IMF, CFR and the UN. How can any individual truly be free to choose their own destiny when society is constructed on man made conventions such capitalism. I contend that freedom doesn't exist at the state level therefore cannot exten…

I see the truth isn't popular today.

Re: Cannabis Access and Academic Performance

#77

I think things like drugs and alcohol are worse for growing brains. From a NYC teacher (One reference point) "I’ve taught high school for 25 years and I hate what marijuana does to my students. It goes beyond missing homework assignments. My students become less curious when they start smoking pot. I’ve seen it time and time again. People say pot makes you more creative, but from what I’ve seen, it narrows my student…

I couldn't disagree more. I didn't know code at all and learned over 50% of what I know about code today high. Thousands of hours of high coding. I am now a full stack developer. I was actually the most productive of my entire life when I would wake up and smoke at 8AM every day and continue smoking throughout the entire day.

I would also regularly go into class high and have riveting conversations with my professors. I remember I went into Calculus and Chemistry in senior year of high school high every single day and I always asked the most questions in class every time.

I'm not saying that smoking weed is good or bad, but to say it is strictly bad for learning is false.

I will say from my experiences that it bothers me deeply that we don't unbiasedly look into this more. I wish we could study these things since we already have millions of people doing active experiments worthy of scientific study. And for some reason we are wildly comfortable giving our kids adderall to do homework, which basically is saying every time you have to critically think you will use this as a crutch. That is good, but weed is bad? That seems absurd to me and I would say the long term impact adderrall has on a persons ability to learn is potentially worse than marijuana. I'd also argue that the social stigma of asking questions has more impact on a persons ability to learn than any drug. People are so afraid to ask questions.

Re: Cannabis Access and Academic Performance

#78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, it would have to be worse than the impact on your life for getting a felony charge for possession. This whole "we have to put people in jail and destroy any and all future job prospects for their own protection" is madness.

That simply doesn't happen in America. Cannabis is de facto legal throughout the USA. I repeat: marijuana is in practice legal in America, and all these people talking about drug charges ruining lives don't know what they're talking about. The only way you get serious charges or any jail time at all for marijuana in America is when you've been arrested for serious crimes, but a District Attorney goes with "possession…

You are either incredibly misinformed or you are an out-and-out liar.

For instance, a drug charge of any kind, even just a misdemeanor for paraphernalia precludes any Federal Student loans from being offered. My younger brother was arrested with a pipe containing some cannabis residue and was unable after that point to receive any Federally subsidized student loans.

Some 20,000 inmates in US prisons are currently incarcerated for cannabis possession and trafficking.

There was a young man of 19 years of age down here in Texas that was arrested after he was ratted out by some teenage customers who were themselves arrested and flipped on their dealer to save themselves. He was arrested with cannabis and cannabis oil along with a pan of brownies he had made with the oil. The Williamson County prosecutor sought to treat the entire volume of brownies as drugs and the defendant was facing LIFE in prison over some cannabis brownies.

So yeah, you either need to inform yourself better or you need to stop lying.

Re: Cannabis Access and Academic Performance

#79
post #76
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree people should have the right to determine their own destiny. Earth, however, isn't a free planet. Show me a country with sovereignty and I'll show you the Bilderberg, World Bank, IMF, CFR and the UN. How can any individual truly be free to choose their own destiny when society is constructed on man made conventions such capitalism. I contend that freedom doesn't exist at the state level therefore cannot exten…

I see the truth isn't popular today.

Well, you did mention a number of organizations that are strongly associated with conspiracy theories of various sorts.

I upvoted your post because I agree that the freedoms we are offered is limited to a set of options deemed acceptable by un-elected and un-representative authorities.

Re: Cannabis Access and Academic Performance

#80
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this teacher should take this as an opportunity to examine what it is he, and the institution he works for is offering these students as an alternative, and consider the students are making rational choices that serve them better. We know from the Rat Park study that rats in an enriched environment full of positive social engagement and freedom do not choose morphine. [1] If the students are choosing drugs, i…

Frankly I'm very skeptical about the idea that people don't use drugs when fulfilled. There's always stress in modern life, and drugs are always attractive at some level

Yes, but it is much easier to do them responsibly if you have other rewarding activities to look forward to.

I, for example, spent almost six months high a couple of years ago and loved it. I stopped because the hippies I was working for ran out of money. I was about an inch away from homelessness before I managed to get a job as a software developer. I was sober at work, but I'd get fucked up as soon as I got home, later with friends, &c. Now that I'm working on my own startup my drug usage has declined even more. I still get high when I have the chance, but I have other highly stimulating activities to spend my time on now.

I wouldn't recommend my life choices to anyone else, but there are ways to responsibly partake of excess.

Post reply on HN