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Suspending pupils from school for using marijuana is likely to lead to more use among their classmates, a new study has found.

The research, conducted by researchers at the University of Washington and in Australia, compared drug policies at schools in Washington state and Victoria, Australia.

It found students attending schools with suspension policies for illicit drug use were 1.6 times more likely than their peers at schools without such policies to use marijuana in the next year — and that was the case with the student body as a whole, not just those who were suspended.

The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Washington and in Australia, compared drug policies at schools in Washington state and Victoria, Australia.

Counseling was found to be a much more effective means of combating marijuana use, the team say. 

'That was surprising to us,' said co-author Richard Catalano, professor of social work and co-founder of the Social Development Research Group at the University of Washington's School of Social Work. 

'It means that suspensions are certainly not having a deterrent effect. It's just the opposite.'

By contrast, the study found that students attending schools with policies of referring pot-using students to a teacher to discuss the dangers of marijuana use were 50 percent less likely to use marijuana. 

Other ways of responding to policy violators — sending them to educational programs, referring them to a school counselor or nurse, expelling them or calling the police — were found to have no significant impact on marijuana use.

The results were published online March 19 in the American Journal of Public Health.

Data for the research come from the International Youth Development Study, a long-term initiative started in 2002 to examine behaviors among young people in Washington and Victoria. 

The two states were chosen since they are similar in size and demographics, but differ considerably in their approaches to drug use among students. 

Washington schools are more likely to suspend students, call police or require offenders to attend education or cessation programs, the researchers note, while Victoria schools emphasize a harm-reduction approach that favors counseling.

Researchers surveyed more than 3,200 seventh- and ninth-graders and nearly 200 school administrators in both 2002 and 2003. 

Students were asked about their use of marijuana, alcohol and cigarettes and also about their schools' drug policies and enforcement. 

In both survey years, pot use was higher among Washington students than those in Victoria — almost 12 percent of Washington ninth-graders had used marijuana in the past month, compared with just over 9 percent of Victoria ninth-graders.

The researchers were initially most interested in teens' use of alcohol and cigarettes, Catalano said.

But after Washington legalized recreational marijuana use for adults in 2012, researchers decided to take a closer look at the data to determine how legalization might influence students in Washington versus their counterparts in Australia, where pot remains illegal.

The physical effects of smoking cannabis/marijuana (related)

Tracy Evans-Whipp, the study's lead author, said though the policies and marijuana use studied predate marijuana legalization in Washington, the findings provide useful insights about what types of school policies are most effective in steering teens away from the drug.

'Cross-national similarities in our findings suggest that school policy impacts on student marijuana use are unlikely to change, despite Washington legalizing marijuana,' said Evans-Whipp, research fellow at the Centre for Adolescent Health and Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Victoria.

Research has shown a consistent link between increased access to marijuana and higher rates of self-reported use by adolescents, the study notes.

 In Washington and Colorado, where recreational marijuana use by adults was also legalized in 2012, school systems have new responsibilities to adequately educate students about marijuana and respond effectively when teens are caught using it, Catalano said.

'To reduce marijuana use among all students, we need to ensure that schools are using drug policies that respond to policy violations by educating or counseling students, not just penalizing them,' he said.

A recent study found smoking marijuana is 114 times safer than drinking alcohol.

This is according to an international study which claims the plant may be 'significantly' less harmful than scientists believe.

On an individual level, the study found that alcohol was the deadliest drug when it comes to the likelihood of a person dying from a high dose.

The study found that alcohol was the deadliest drug when it comes to the likelihood of a person dying. The next most deadly substances are heroin and cocaine, followed by tobacco, ecstasy, and methamphetamine

The next most deadly substances are heroin and cocaine, followed by tobacco, ecstasy, and methamphetamine.

The results of the study were based on estimating the typical human intake of each drug and combining that figure with the lethal dose.

'The results confirm that the risk of cannabis may have been overestimated in the past,' Professor Dirk Lachenmeier at the Chemical and Veterinary Research Office Karlsruhe wrote in Scientific Reports.

'At least for the endpoint of mortality, the [margin of exposure] for THC/cannabis in both individual and population-based assessments would be above safety thresholds.

'In contrast, the risk of alcohol may have been commonly underestimated.'

Overall, the study found that smoking marijuana is 114 times safer than drinking alcohol. Marijuana legalisation supporters have used the study to suggest that existing bans on the drug are misguided

Cannabis was the only drug in the study that posed a 'low' mortality risk, with most users using less than 1/150th of the amount that would kill them.

Last year Wayne Hall of the World Health Organisation said it's nearly impossible for even those who smoke large amounts of cannabis to overdose on the drug.

'The estimated fatal dose [of THC, the primary active compound in marijuana] in humans derived from animal studies is between 15 and 70 grams,' Hall wrote in the Washington Post.

'This is a far greater amount of cannabis that even a very heavy cannabis user could use in a day.'

Marijuana legalisation supporters have used the study to suggest that existing bans on the drug are misguided. The authors of the report also seem to share this view.

'Currently, the MOE results point to risk management prioritisation towards alcohol and tobacco rather than illicit drugs,' the study reads.

'The high MOE values of cannabis, which are in a low-risk range, suggest a strict legal regulatory approach rather than the current prohibition approach.'

WHY DO CANNABIS USERS SOMETIMES HAVE DIFFICULTY SPEAKING? 

Motor neurons (pictured) are nerve cells found in the cerebral cortex of the brain stem, and are responsible for giving orders to muscles

Marijuana users can sometimes have difficulty speaking, breathing and swallowing food as a result of muscle weakness.

Now researchers in Spain have conducted a landmark study to shed light on how marijuana reduces the activity of motor neurons that lead to these symptoms. 

Motor neurons are nerve cells found in the cerebral cortex of the brain stem, and are responsible for giving orders to muscles in the body.

Researchers at the University of Cadiz, led by Professor Bernardo Moreno, used synthetic analogues of the psychoactive compounds of marijuana to see how they affected these neurons.

They looked, in particular, at movements of the tongue and how they responded to the drug.

'During the investigation, we used an animal model in which we studied the alterations produced by synthetic cannabinoids on the activity of the motor neurons,' the researchers wrote.

 'In doing so, we discovered that these psychoactive compounds inhibit the information that reaches these neurons via the synapses.

'In other words, cannabinoids hinder the transmission of information between neurons.'

All of this could lead to problems speaking, breathing and swallowing food.