President of Ontario Medical Association said students taking cannabis while will “likely get lower grades.”
Pot stores around Ryerson say sales have gone up since the beginning of the semester in September.
“Since school started, we definitely got more university student customers,” the manager at Cana Cabana store near campus, Seth Elkins-Silver, said.
“After the beginning of September, we see Ryerson, George Brown, U of T students started to come in. Especially during the weekdays when they got off class that day.”
A staff member from Tokyo Smoke echoed that, saying their store had more university student customers after the beginning of this semester.
According to the fourth quarter 2018 National Cannabis Survey from Stats Canada, one-third of 18- to 24-year-olds use pot, which is more than any other age group.
Some university students said they use pot because they feel it helps them with studying.
“It makes me feel high and I actually can study better after I used pot,” Gavyn Donaldson, a first-year Ryerson history student, said.
“I started using pot since I was in Grade 8 because it can make me focus on my study, and it’s very helpful,” first-year fashion design student from George Brown, Kurtis Tipoff, said.
The president of the Ontario Medical Association, Sohail Gandhi, said some students may turn to recreational cannabis to help reduce their stress or anxiety from school work. But Gandhi added that, “the effects of recreational cannabis aren’t very compatible with studying. If you take cannabis before you study or for your exams, you will likely get lower grades.”
Gandhi also said that using cannabis can cause inattentiveness, impaired judgment and decision-making and challenges in processing and retaining information. Long-term effects for regular users include challenges with problem-solving and learning, memory and processing complex information.
“If you feel like school stress is getting to you, please reach out to your family doctor or campus student health organization – they’re there to listen and to help,” Gandhi said.
Meilin Ma is the business editor and reporter at the Ryersonian for the winter 2021 masthead.