This is Your Brain - This Is Your Brain on Drugs
By: Sunny Sambhara
I can’t stand the bad-rap marijuana has received over the years. Grouped in a category with cocaine, heroin, exctasy and other hard narcotics, marijuana has yet to claim a single life due to an overdose, has yet to be proven physically addictive, and yet to be conclusivly proven that it is a “gateway” drug. Anyone who tells you otherwise is mixing truth with fiction.
The truth is, marijuana IS a drug. There is no question about it. The active
ingredient in marijuana, THC, is a mind altering chemical that creates a feeling of
lucidity and relaxation upon consumption. By its very nature it is less harmful than
tobacco and alcohol, both of which are legalized narcotics.
One of the most prevelant reasons marijuana remains illegal is it’s effect on memory
and reasoning. Fed up with claims that “stoners end up smoking all day and failing
their courses”, I decided to conduct a very basic experiment as part of my individual
report for an Introduction to Statistics course checking the validity of this claim.
Though it was conducted two years ago, I strongly believe that the results of this
experiment are still valid.
Introduction
The legal foundation of the status of marijuana in Canada has been severely
weakened. With the recent Senate report regarding the benefits of decriminalization
and even legalization as well as the Supreme Court ruling that the current laws are
unconstitutional, the topic of “pot” and its usage is at the forefront of the minds of
todays youth. National surveys and reports have indicated that nearly 80% of
Canadians favor decriminalization of the substance while a statistically significant
proportion (65%) favor legalization. Those who have argued against the legalization
and more-so decriminalization of marijuana have argued it would create a
generation of pot-heads, or “stupid” pot addicted youth. The main goal of this
report is to research whether marijuana has any effect on the intelligence of youth.
This will be done so by surveying 40 random people at the University of Toronto
during the week of March 1, 2003 to March 8, 2003 and comparing the G.P.A’s of
those who state they have used marijuana against those who state they have never
tried the substance. This population of 40 youth will hopefully accurately represent
the general population of students at the University of Toronto and in turn the
average Canadian youth who falls in that age bracket.
To ensure that the sample is as random as possible, the survey will be conducted as
follows. Four groups of two individuals (friends of mine) carrying 10 surveys will
stand near the main entrance of one of the following buildings: The Hart House,
University College, Medical Building and Convocation Hall. These four buildings
represent the largest at the University of Toronto. The survey is then to be
distributed one at a time to every 3rd individual who walks through the main doors.
It is expected that 100% of individuals who are given the survey will complete it on
the spot and return it, if they refuse, then the surveyors proceed to wait for another
3 individuals to pass by before giving out a survey.
Many may state that this is not a completely random survey as we are only getting
individuals who have classes in these four buildings. This is true, but the survey was
distributed this way for the following reason. Our target population is the average
Canadian youth and we define youth as anyone between the ages of 19 and 23, or
anyone pursuing their undergraduate degree. Almost all students at the University
of Toronto who are presently working toward their undergraduate degree have to
pass through one of these four buildings at some point during the average week.
Granted this does not include those who are sick, or dropped out of school, but
those people are not “average Canadian youth” and therefore do not fit the profile of
this survey.
The Survey
1. Have you smoked marijuana since beginning your post-secondary education? Yes
__ No __
2. What is your present age?
3. What year of your undergraduate degree are you currently enrolled as?
Freshman__ Sophomore__ Junior__ Senior__ Super-Senior__
4. What program are you currently registered in?
5. What province in Canada do you call home? (if you are from another country state
the country name)
6. How old were you when you first smoke marijuana?
7. How many blunts do you smoke monthly?
8. Approximately how much do you spend monthly on marijuana use?
9. Have you tried or do you use any other drug beside marijuana? Yes____ (state
drug name ____) No____
10. What is your current G.P.A?
Survey Construction and Methodology
The survey was distributed to 8 individuals paired up to make four groups. These
groups were then posted at the entrances of the following buildings; The Hart
House, University College, Medical Building and Convocation Hall. The survey was
distributed by the group to every third individual who entered the building. Because
the individuals taking the survey either took it on the spot or refused due to time
constraints or other reasons, the surveys that were not taken were then distributed
to the next individual who happened to be the third person entering after the
refusal. By maintaining that the survey be taken on the spot only by every third
individual, we not only obtain our random sample of the undergraduate population,
we also maintain a 100% return rate.
The survey was given out during the week of March 3,2003 to March 7, 2003 at the
previously stated locations during the following times, 10:00 am, 12 noon, 2 p.m., 4
p.m. and 6 p.m.. The logic behind this was to not only obtain information from
students who had classes during the regular 9 – 5 interval but also obtain
information from the population of students who had classes during the evenings.
Ideally I would have liked to distribute surveys on the hour, every hour, but it was
not possible to do so using this methodology as those individuals who volunteered
their time to help distribute the surveys at those locations refused to do so every
hour stating “I have a life, and no amount of beer is worth wasting an entire week”.
Regression, Correlation and Analysis
After calculating the regression line, we find there is a linear correlation that
emerges allowing us to predict the G.P.A of an average student at the University of
Toronto from the amount of marijuana smoked monthly. For the purposes of this
survey, the amount of marijuana consumed is measured by the amount of blunts/
joints smoked within a month, with the monthly period consisting of approximately
30 days. The equation that is derived from the regression analysis allowing us to
make this prediction is as follows, “y-hat = 0.0257x + 2.88”, where y-hat
represents the predicted G.P.A of an average university student, and the x-value
signifies the number of ‘blunts’ smoked corresponding to amount of marijuana
consumed monthly. Even though we can see that there is a positive correlation,
which may cause us to believe that the data implies the more marijuana smoked,
the higher the G.P.A of an individual we have to also take into consideration the r-
value or the strength of the linear relationship before we can draw any strong
conclusions. The r-value in this case is calculated to be 0.332047, which although is
not incredibly strong, it is strong enough to allow us to state that these two
variables are correlated. In order to have full faith in our conclusion, we must make
sure that an analysis of the residual plot gives us no reason to believe otherwise.
The residual plot based on the data provided indicates no clear outliers or influential
points, while also establishing no clear and credible pattern amongst the residual
points graphed. This in turn indicates that the regression line has captured the
overall relationship between marijuana consumption and G.P.A.
General Analysis of Data
The undergraduate degree to many has become synonymous for a time of self
discovery and exploration, with the attitude of students towards alcohol, sex and
marijuana taking on very liberal stance. This generalization seems to fit perfectly
when trying to interpret the data found while conducting this survey at the St.
George campus at the University of Toronto. Of the 40 individuals who had
completed the survey, 67% had stated that they either presently use, or have at-
least tried marijuana during their post-secondary education careers. Of the data on
the 40 students, at-least one individual from each of the corresponding
undergraduate years was represented. This allowed us to discover that of the
students enrolled, sophomores consume the most amount of marijuana, 82 blunts,
constituting 38% of all the marijuana smoked amongst the surveyed. Freshman rank
last, constituting approximately 11% or 24 blunts of the total marijuana smoked
amongst the surveyed.
With the last report conducted by the Canadian Senate, it was suggested upon it’s
conclusion that marijuana should not only be decriminalized but also legalized, with
the legal age for possession being 16. Staunch supporters of the American ‘War on
Drugs’ policy felt that making possession of marijuana legal for 16 year olds would
create a generation of “dope heads”. Anti-legalization groups cited the addictive
nature of marijuana, claiming that if made available to younger audiences, it would
cause increased use of the substance in their later years, which in turn indicates
addiction.
In order to test this hypothesis put forth by the anti-legalization movement, the
survey provided to the students at the University of Toronto also asked at what age
they first tried marijuana. By comparing the age that the students first tried the
substance to the average of the present monthly marijuana consumption for that
group, we can get a general idea of whether the previous hypothesis holds true. In
theory we would expect to see a bar graph with the highest average consumption
amongst those individuals who tried the substance at an early age as opposed to
those who tried it later on. Based on our findings we see there is no real pattern that
emerges.
Though the highest average of marijuana consumption, 9.8 joints/month, is
amongst those individuals that tried it when while they were 19 years old, their was
a very similar average, 9 joints/month, amongst those individuals who had tried the
substance while they were 15 years old. This creates a distribution with two distinct
peaks. This may be due to many reasons, one of which can easily be explained.
Because the question asked for the age those surveyed first started smoking the
substance rather then the amount of time they were smoking it for, the data refutes
the hypothesis “as stated” by the anti-legalization movement, but may not refute
what they meant. If the statement was less ambiguous, I may have been able to
change the question around so that data could be collected on the length of time
individuals smoked for rather then the age they first tried it.
To get more accurate information from the same data, we could attempt to find out
at what age youth at the University of Toronto are most likely to try marijuana. This
can be accomplished by creating a histogram of the age that people first tried
marijuana.
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