Kids more likely to use marijuana when suspension is the consequence

By Kathryn Doyle (Reuters Health) – - Schools that use suspension to punish drug use, or that weakly enforce any of their drug policies, have higher rates of student marijuana use than schools with more consistent and less-punitive approaches, according to a new study. “We hypothesized that harsh penalties like suspension would act as a deterrent and result in lower likelihood of marijuana use,” but that did not turn out to be the case, said lead author Tracy J. Evans-Whipp of the Center for Adolescent Health at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Victoria, Australia. “We suggest further research to follow this up – it could be that students in suspension-using schools feel that their school wouldn’t support them if they got into trouble,” Evans-Whipp told Reuters Health by email. The researchers used two waves of surveys of more than 3,000 students in grades seven and nine and more than 100 of their school administrators, half in Washington State and half in Australia.

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