Early experimentation with cannabis has a very strong impact on the professional future. The risk of experiencing one or more periods of unemployment in adulthood is greatly increased in the event of consumption before the age of 16.
- 40% of young people under 17 in France say they have used cannabis
- The consequences of this consumption are a loss of concentration and motivation which weigh on academic success.
- It greatly increases the risk of encountering difficulties of professional integration in adulthood.
Smoking cannabis during adolescence not only increases the risk of poorer academic success because of the concentration and motivation difficulties associated with this use. This would also mean having to deal with situations of unemployment later on. This is what indicates a study carried out by INSERM and published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.
While 40% of young people under 17 in France say they have used cannabis in the past year and our country has one of the highest levels of consumption of this drug, the study establishes a link between the so-called early experimentation with cannabis (before the age of 16) and the difficulties of professional integration in adulthood. It was by analyzing the situation of nearly 1,500 young adults over a period of 9 years between 2009 and 2018 that the researchers came to this conclusion.
A risk of unemployment twice as high for those who consumed before the age of 16
Going into more detail, their study specifies that having started using cannabis before the age of 16 doubles the risk of experiencing a period of unemployment in adulthood compared to those who have never used this narcotic. , a risk that only increases by 39% if the first consumption of cannabis did not take place until after the age of 16. Still on the register of the negative impact of the use of cannabis in adolescence on employment in adulthood, it multiplies by three the risk of experiencing several periods of unemployment for those who have used before 16 years and increases it by 51% for those who consumed after 16 years.
The impact of cannabis on social and economic life
“These results show that the age of the first experience of cannabis is associated with harmful consequences not only on health but also on the social and economic life of people and that postponing this experimentation as late as possible should be a policy objective. public”, emphasizes Maria Melchior, research director at INSERM and author of the study.
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