Maria Melchior, Laura Pryor and Marie Jauffret-Roustide

Our study, recently published in the IJE, shows that youths who initiate cannabis use before the age of 17 years are 60% less likely to pursue higher education than those who never used cannabis. An original aspect of our study, which was based on data from the longitudinal TEMPO cohort in France, is that we were able to take into account youths’ psychological and school difficulties in childhood and adolescence, as well as their parents’ characteristics.

In recent decades, cannabis use has become frequent among youths growing up in Europe, North America and Australasia. The potential health effects of cannabis use include reductions in memory and concentration. Because the brain is thought to develop until the age of 25, adolescent substance use could have lasting negative effects on executive functions, which can in turn result in school difficulties and low educational achievement.

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