Study concludes that cannabis use by college students is rarely associated with negative outcomes

Through Nicolas Jose Rodriguez

A team of investigators affiliated with the University of Florida at Gainesville assessed the relationship between college students’ self-reported use of marijuana and other substances and academic outcomes.

College students who use cannabis but no other controlled substances do not appear to have a significant risk of suffering from a substance use disorder or poor academic performance, according to data published in the Journal of American College Health, NORML reported.

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The research team reported that students who used cannabis (and did not use alcohol, cigarettes, or other substances) were less likely to report problems related to substance abuse, truancy, or poor grades than those who used multiple substances.

Details of the study

According to the results of the study, “cannabis-only users reported experiencing the least amount of cannabis-related consequences and CUD [cannabis use disorder] Symptoms but used cannabis on more days in the past month than any other group except the all-substance users group (CACS – cannabis, alcohol, cigarette and other substance users).

“These results may indicate that although pure cannabis users use more frequently than other groups, this group may be at lower risk of adverse outcomes related to use than users who only use cannabis. This is consistent with previous findings showing that multi-drug use is associated with more negative outcomes compared to single use,” the researchers added.

Current evidence suggests that:

• Alcohol use is common among cannabis-using college students and;
• Multi-substance use of four or more substances is associated with an increased risk of cannabis and school-related problems, including severity of CUD symptoms, grade skipping, and lower grade point averages.

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“When addressing cannabis use among college students, clinicians should evaluate and address multiple substances in addition to cannabis. The risks associated with cannabis use alone were small compared to concomitant substance use. Therefore, efforts aimed at preventing the onset of additional substance use may be warranted,” the researchers concluded.

This article originally appeared on Benzinga and has been republished with permission.