In the beginning of this topic study, I figured that marijuana use wouldn't be good for the academic success of college students, which is not a hard conclusion to draw given the legal status of the drug. I thought that marijuana would just make students lazy or demotivated and that would be the reason heavy users don't do not perform well in school. My inquiry addressed how marijuana usage effects the academic performance of college students. I found that marijuana use negatively effects a students GPA, but more importantly I found out about the mental issues that marijuana use causes, such as anxiety and problems with cognitive functions. This brought me to the conclusion that marijuana use is detrimental to the academic success of college students. There is a direct correlation between marijuana use and lower grades, caused by negative changes in the brain and motivation loss. With the national stance of marijuana gradually shifting toward legality, we have to consider the impact of legal marijuana on college students. College administrations should be more transparent about the negative effects that marijuana has on its student.
Since when was marijuana so popular?
Marijuana popularity has been on the rise for the past decade in the United States. This has been evident through the legality changes in states like Washington and Colorado. To understand the growth of acceptance of marijuana, take a look back to the Obama Administration. The first significant step towards the legalization of marijuana was the Ogden Memo. The Ogden Memo was released in 2009 and essentially stated that the federal government was to stay away from medical marijuana cases as long as the subjects under investigation were in compliance with state laws. In 2012, Washington and Colorado both had marijuana laws pass with majority vote. This was a controversial decision and eventually led to the infamous Cole Memo. The Cole Memo was released in the summer of 2013, building off the Ogden Memo, basically stated that states had the right to make their own laws on marijuana regulation, allowing recreational marijuana to be legalized. Together, the Ogden and Cole Memos gave states all the power to control marijuana. In 2018, eight states have fully legalized marijuana and 22 have medical marijuana programs, and these numbers continue to grow as marijuana becomes destigmatized and decriminalized.