Marijuana is slowly getting better known around the world. The plant is getting more and more famous among people who want to use it for medical reasons, for fun, or to calm down. More newer studies, on the other hand, have made people wonder if adults should use it or not. People who are at least thirty years old should be given extra attention. Some people in this group might want to change how they act because of what will happen.

When someone is thirty, they might decide that smoking pot is not the best thing to do.

Are you 30 years old or older and enjoy the occasional (or regular) joint? Well, research conducted in Australia is suggesting you may want to curb the habit. They studied life outcomes of marijuana users and the results for adults over 30 didn’t look so good. (1)

Researchers from the University of Queensland looked into how successful people who use drugs like marijuana and amphetamines were. More than 8,000 moms and 2,000 children between the ages of 21 and 30 who were thinking about using drugs were looked at. The company came to the conclusion that the use led to a drop in the success rates based on nine different factors.

• Education
• Income
• Home ownership
• Relationship status
• Reported happiness

But the most important thing to remember is that people who kept taking pot after age thirty had the lowest success rates.

The Study’s Limitations

Before you get too stressed out and think that you need to quit the habit by the time you turn thirty (or that you should have already), remind yourself that you don’t need to worry too much about it. Because there were so many limits on the study, the data might or might not be useful.

1. Strange Data

As a first and most important point, these numbers, which come from Australia, only show female daycare providers and are true for Australia. It’s also very specific, which could give a false picture of other countries than what they really are. Some of the data goes all the way back to 1981. With the number of people in the world today, it’s not surprising that this might not be important. Twenty-two

2. Markers of Success

They came up with standards that give people another way to check if an event was a success. Having a home and being married are two signs that someone is married. A lot of cultural and geographical factors influence both of these. Personal goals and where you want to live are more important than how successful you are in the real estate market when it comes to buying a home. In addition, it relies on whether the person in question has a family or needs to set roots in a certain place. The mobile lifestyle of a digital nomad is becoming more and more common, so owning a home does not always mean you will be successful.

Another complicated thing that has to be thought about when deciding on success is how someone interacts with others. There are a number of culture and geographical factors that might take this into account. It’s true that many people have had a lot of success while being single, and many couples are having a lot of issues. The success of your life may depend on how involved you are in a relationship that is very important to you. But on the other hand, that doesn’t mean that it always means success for everyone.

3. Other Drug Use

The study also didn’t check to see if people who had a high failure rate used drugs other than marijuana and/or amphetamines.

“We do not have adequate data on other illicit drugs that may be being used, for example, ecstasy, opiates and even synthetic drugs,” the researchers admitted in their paper. “A subset of those using cannabis as well as amphetamines may also be using a range of other drugs and it may be that our findings reflect polydrug use generally rather than the specific use of cannabis and amphetamines.”

What do you think this means for you?

In fact, the studies show that trying drugs as a teen does not always lead to a bad life as an adult. Still, it gives the impression that it is very important to make sure it doesn’t become a dependence by the time a person is grown up. Being an adult who uses drugs like weed too much can also make their life less stable, hurt the quality of their relationships, and make them less effective at work.

This means that you are free to use marijuana if you want to. Please make sure that your life doesn’t get out of hand and that you don’t go beyond what you’re supposed to do. You might want to give up a habit if you don’t want to do it, if it costs you too much, or if it gets in the way of your personal or business duties.

Sources

1. Do cannabis and amphetamine use in adolescence predict adult life success: a longitudinal study.” T and F Online. Jake M. Najman, et al. July 11, 2021.
2. “Support For Marijuana Legalization In Australia Nearly Doubles In Six Years.” Forbes. A.J. Herrington. December 29, 2021.
3. “If You’re Still Smoking Weed at 30, Scientists Have Bad News” Theheartysoul Julie Hambleton November 21, 2024