The following is excerpted from an online article posted by MedicalExpress
Using marijuana just once or twice a month was associated with worse school performance and emotional distress for teens, according to a large national study of adolescents led by Ryan Sultán, an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. The more frequently teens used cannabis, the more likely they were to report emotional distress and other social and academic problems.
“While previous studies have focused on the effects of frequent cannabis use among teens, our study found that any amount of cannabis use at all may put kids at risk of falling behind in school, and the kids using most often may have the greatest risk,” says Sultán, who studies adolescent substance use.
“A few ‘harmless’ joints can snowball into real academic consequences. Teens using it regularly often struggle to focus, miss school, and may lose interest in their future plans.”
The new study arrives amid a national backdrop of shifting trends in teen drug use. While use of many substances is at record lows among US youths, cannabis remains an exception. About 1 in 5 high school students currently use cannabis, and approximately 6% of 12th graders use it daily—a rate that has increased in the past decade.
Source: MedicalExpress
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-12-teens-cannabis-impact-emotional-health.html