Marijuana - Iowa Voices of Reason

If you care about education…

In a 2012 study, individuals who started using cannabis in adolescence and used it for years afterward showed an average decline in IQ of 8 points when their age 13 and age 38 IQ tests were compared. Quitting pot did not appear to reverse the loss. (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

According to SAMHSA’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) (PDF | 3.2 MB), marijuana use rose to 7.5% of users aged 12 or older in 2013. This is up from 6.2% of users in 2002.

Additional NSD

If you care about employment…

you need to care about cannabis use

  • UH findings on marijuana include:
  • 19.8 million (7.5%) people were current (past month) users of marijuana in 2013, making it the most used illicit drug.
  • Marijuana use was most prevalent among people age 18 to 25 (with 19.1% using it in the past month).
  • 7.1% of people aged 12 to 17 reported using marijuana.
  • A higher percentage of males (9.7%) used marijuana in the past month than females (5.6%).

Employees who abuse drugs are 10 times more likely to miss work; 3.6 times more likely to be involved in on-the-job incidents; and 5 times more likely to file workers’ compensation claims. (American Council for Drug Education, New York)

If you care about...

Marijuana use in Iowa

Click here for a marijuana brochure

For more information, go to Iowa Voices of Reason to find documents related to marijuana education and efforts to reduce youth access to marijuana

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