“Marijuana is the drug for which most kids get penalized in school settings,” Sheila Vakharia, deputy director of the Department of Research and Academic Engagement at the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), tells Teen Vogue.

The War on Drugs disproportionately impacts Black and Brown youth in schools, like it disproportionately impacts their older relatives and neighborhoods overall. But young people may have more to lose than adults because drug criminalization often leads to school suspension and expulsion, even in states with more progressive cannabis reform.

As recreational legalization measures sweep the nation and CBD-infused products proliferate, young people are still negatively impacted by cannabis policing. This is also true in states that have legalized pot. According to 2018 policing data compiled by the state of Colorado, drug-related infractions made up approximately 5-6% of all student suspensions, but cannabis accounted for about 70% of suspensions or expulsions for drugs, and almost 80% of law enforcement referrals for drugs in the 2017-2018 school year.

Young people don't seem to be consuming cannabis more widely these days. According to a 2018 DPA report, “Preliminary data suggest that youth marijuana use rates have remained stable and have actually gone down in some cases, both nationally and in states that have legalized marijuana for adults.” Additionally, despite the presumption that cannabis use among minors would increase as states passed recreational measures, research has shown that has not been the case. In Washington, where adult retail marijuana sales were legalized in 2012, the state’s largest metropolitan county saw a decline in marijuana use among students in grades 6, 8, 10, and 12, according to 2019 research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Yet the criminalization of youth cannabis use is a pervasive, troubling phenomenon. Zero tolerance policies and suspension and expulsion have been linked to drop-out rates. This speaks to the larger issue of the school-to-prison pipeline, which disproportionately impacts youth of color (even preschool students), especially those from low-income households. And when young people are incarcerated, their criminal records also prevent them from being able to access job and housing opportunities, further exacerbating pre-existing marginalizations based on race, gender, class, and/or ability.

Those who are suspended or expelled are less likely to succeed academically when compared with their peers who haven’t been penalized. A 2014 policy statement from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services explains that suspended or expelled students are as much as “10 times more likely to drop out of high school, experience academic failure and grade retention, hold negative school attitudes, and face incarceration than those who are not.” Even if they aren’t suspended, expelled, or criminally charged, Colorado students, for instance, can be barred from participating in sports programs, activities that have been linked to increased academic achievement.

The DPA’s Vakharia points out that disciplinary action can also take other forms, like being coercively sent to drug treatment for cannabis. According to 2017 Department of Health and Human Services data, young people ages 12-17 were referred to drug treatment for cannabis more than any other drug. Over 43% of cases were referred by the court system, and 17% were referred by schools.

“Marijuana is the drug for which most young people are sent to treatment, but if you look at the data more closely, the vast majority of referrals to treatment for marijuana for young people in the United States are actually through their schools and the justice system,” Vakharia explains. “How are treatment systems complicit in medicalizing and pathologizing marijuana use and the way to help some people avoid the justice-related consequences and being involved with the system?”