Opinion: Let’s be blunt
June 2, 2015
By Kai-Lou Yue
News Editor
It’s widely known that many people smoke marijuana in the country and in places around the world; Westford Academy is not apart from this generalization.
Despite various schools rules attempting to prevent its use, high school students have not halted it.
With the marijuana study set to take place this fall at WA, it is evident that this experiment is not a good idea and will not have a positive effect on the community.
First and foremost, this study is sending a negative message to students that smoking marijuana is acceptable, especially since monetary rewards will be given to participants in the study.
In general, it seems rather unfair that students are essentially being rewarded for past infractions with the drug. Students who have not taken the drug are allowed to participate in the study as controls and will be rewarded in the same way, but the treatment of the two groups does not show that marijuana use is being discouraged in any way.
Parental approval has to be given for the student to participate, and as many parents are not aware of their child’s smoking habits, this narrows down the pool of potential participants drastically. Getting students to admit that they are smoking marijuana, even if it is kept confidential, may be difficult, for fear of administration somehow finding out.
Additionally, the people who will participate in the study in the marijuana group may take other drugs such as cocaine. This could affect the results of the study, as students would not necessarily have to admit to the usage of other drugs, but schoolwork and tests would still be affected by it.
Consequently, it is evident that the marijuana study taking place at Westford Academy is not the best idea, and it is unlikely that the results will be conclusive due to a number of confounding factors.
Will O'Neal • Jun 3, 2015 at 9:09 pm
I respectfully disagree with your position. The study is not in fact sending the message that marijuana use is acceptable, as the students who participate in the experimental group must actually abstain from using marijuana (participants will be tested to make sure they are abstaining) to get the monetary rewards. They are essentially being rewarded for not smoking marijuana, and the large amount of money given seems like a pretty good way to discourage use.
As for admitting to smoking, the researchers have promised complete confidentiality, meaning that nobody but the participants and the researchers will know which group each participant is in; parents, administration, and law enforcement will never know. And yes, the possibility that confidentiality could be broken exists, but the researchers are professionals, experienced in the area of ethics. The chances of a breach in confidentiality happening are negligible. I also am confident that the researchers will take extraneous factors such as other drug use into consideration; like I said, they are professionals.
I do however think that it may be helpful to the students and parents of WA if the details of the experiment were made accessible so that there would be less confusion on what the study actually entails.