Smoking cannabis can be one major reason for your child’s failed education?

According to a study, of more than 6000 young people in New Zealand and Australia, the younger, people start smoking cannabis, the more likely they are to fail in the education system.

This study, from three large Australasian cohort studies and Otago University's long-running Christchurch Health and Development Study, saw researchers look at the age people started using cannabis and whether they completed school, enrolled in university, or completed a degree.

Had all young people not used cannabis before the age of 18, rates of high school non completion would have reduced by up to 17%. Rates of university non attendance would have decreased by up to five percent and rates of non attainment of a university degree by up to three percent.

"These findings imply that the potential effects of early cannabis use on later educational achievement should not be dismissed as being inconsequential," said Otago University's Professor David Fergusson, one of the authors of the study.

The findings added to the growing body of evidences that increased risks of mental health problems, crime, other forms of illicit drug use, and later welfare dependence and economic deprivation had some association with the early use of cannabis.

However, it may also introduce young people to social contexts which encourage anti-conventional and precocious behaviours, which discourage educational attainment.