As conversations surrounding cannabis legalization continue to focus on potential impacts on the youth of America, we tend to forget to consider how these conversations impact the people they are about. It’s a confusing new landscape for young people; federal and state cannabis laws continue to expand, while the messaging in schools remains the same. Just say no.
But Dr. Faith English, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, was curious to explore how cannabis messaging in schools and the consequences of use affect young people over time. Similarly, Dr. English wanted to examine how “zero-tolerance” policies, specifically in marginalized communities, perpetuate the school-to-prison pipeline. The study, “Just take it away from them and talk to them about it: Exploring youth perspectives on and experiences with cannabis-related school discipline,” was recently published in the International Journal of Drug Policy.
18 people, all under 21, were interviewed about their experiences with how cannabis use was handled by their schools, with the goal of generating a conversation that centered the importance of personal experience when considering how discipline and surveillance is experienced in school settings. While participants agreed that cannabis should not be used in schools; students discussed alternative forms to mitigation that they would have found helpful.
“There was universal agreement among participants that cannabis does not belong in schools, but instead of being suspended from extracurricular activities or being suspended or expelled from schools, they advocated for alternatives to abstinence-only messaging and called for more mental health and substance use resources for kids who need it,” Dr. English said in a recent press release.
The findings of the study highlighted the ways in which consequences of cannabis-use in schools can feel extreme, and destructive to students’ education. “I think that punishing students on the school level is kind of stupid in my personal opinion; taking away their education because they’re doing something that’s not correct. They should correct the action of what they are doing instead of taking away their education,” one participant said.
To others, the practice of searching students for drugs at school is viewed as a violation. “So, when she got caught, she had to be sent to the office, and she got searched, and like, one of the female teachers, they searched underneath her clothing as well, which I thought was a bit extreme,” another participant explained. And to some, using drugs can be a symptom of trauma. “Kids who possibly are going through abuse at home, a lot of the time those kids will turn to drugs (to) cope. And then, they are sent home without even taking that into account,” a third participant said.
Understanding how these practices impact young people offers important research into what authentic harm reduction of substance use could truly look like in schools. “We hope these findings will encourage the adoption and expansion of alternatives to exclusionary discipline for cannabis — particularly in the context of a state with adult-use legalization,” Dr. English noted.
