Technolandy

Day 139 (of 2025/26) 4/20 and the ongoing impacts of legalization…

I’ve got biases.

Mostly this one: the longer we can delay the use of substances, the better for neurological development. Full stop.

But since the legalization of cannabis in Canada, I’ve been paying closer attention… and I’m not sure we’re looking in all the right places.

Because some of the findings that keep surfacing don’t seem to get the same airtime.

Maybe because it’s easier to blame screens.

But for what, exactly?

Impact on learning and cognition

This is where the research starts to converge.

Students themselves report the risks:

76.5% say cannabis harms memory and attention

Links to:

reduced concentration

impaired executive functioning

lower academic performance

And yet… when those same challenges show up in classrooms, the diagnosis often lands elsewhere.

Screens. Social media. Devices.

Not entirely wrong. But maybe not the whole picture either.

Because more serious findings are harder to ignore:

Teen users face a significantly higher risk of psychotic disorders and it’s not simply because they’re on instagram (often trying to find community, understanding, and others who are more like themselves than they may find in their geographic and school environment.

The classroom reality

The impact hasn’t been usually dramatic.

No sudden collapse. No cinematic unraveling.

It’s quieter than that.

More like a slight delay in the system:

working memory slips a gear

task persistence fades faster

motivation becomes… negotiable <— and I’m not convinced assigning a % of the grade to attendance and ‘participation’ will resolve this.

A kind of cognitive lag. Subtle. Accumulative. Easy to misattribute.

Mental health and wellbeing

This is where things get more intertwined.

Emerging research points to a deeper connection:

cannabis use linked with psychological distress

mental health now a stronger predictor of use than before legalization

And schools are seeing this play out in real time:

anxiety and disengagement

self-medication narratives

overlapping wellness concerns

Again, we often look outward.

At platforms. At algorithms. At screen time.

But some of what we’re seeing may be happening behind the eyes, not just on the screen.

A shift, not a switch

I’ll admit it. My stance has softened.

Legalization hasn’t been the educational earthquake some predicted.

What hasn’t happened:

no massive surge in student use

no collapse of school environments

But something has shifted.

Less like flipping a switch… more like a change in climate.

What has changed:

normalization of cannabis

lower perceived risk

more discreet and potent forms

stronger links with mental health and learning challenges

So what?

This isn’t an argument against technology.

And it’s not a call for prohibition dressed up as nostalgia.

It’s a nudge toward a more complete picture.

Because if we’re trying to understand attention, motivation, and learning in 2026…

we probably need to widen the lens.

Screens matter.

But they’re not the only story we’re telling ourselves.

We keep trying to fix attention by managing devices.

But what if “attention” has become the safer distraction from the root issue we still don’t want to confront? Anybody else diving deeper than surface symptoms?