Cannabis: Choices and Consequences

Overview

This introductory Year 12 Health lesson reconnects with students’ limited Year 10 learning and builds a more critical understanding of cannabis as an adolescent health issue. Students examine influences, consequences for hauora, and health-enhancing strategies using personal, interpersonal and societal perspectives.

Learning intentions

Students will:

• explain what cannabis is and identify common forms of use
• examine influences on adolescent cannabis decisions
• analyse possible consequences for taha tinana, taha hinengaro, taha whānau and taha wairua
• identify reliable sources of information and strategies that promote wellbeing

Success criteria

• I can distinguish evidence-based information from assumptions or myths.
• I can explain how at least two influences may affect cannabis-related decisions.
• I can link cannabis use with possible short- and long-term effects on hauora.
• I can suggest personal, interpersonal and societal strategies that support wellbeing.

Curriculum links

• Analyse an adolescent health issue: influences, consequences for wellbeing, and health-enhancing strategies.
• Use hauora and a socio-ecological perspective to consider cannabis at personal, interpersonal and societal levels.
• Apply health promotion, attitudes and values, and critical thinking to a current adolescent health issue.
• Connects with the Health and Physical Education focus on mental health, decision-making, personal wellbeing and healthy communities.

Lesson structure (50 minutes)

1. 0–5 min · Safe entry and anonymous hook. Teacher establishes the discussion agreement: no personal disclosures are required, use respectful language, challenge ideas rather than people, and students may pass. Open with the anonymous cannabis hook and discussion agreements and ask students to respond anonymously to: “Why might two people make different decisions about cannabis?” Students write one possible influence on a sticky note or in a digital poll.

2. 5–13 min · Reconnect and clarify. Teacher collects prior knowledge, then uses the cannabis definition and key facts to clarify that cannabis is a drug containing compounds including THC, which can affect mood, perception, coordination, memory and judgement. Explain that effects vary according to the person, product strength, amount, frequency, method of use and context. Emphasise that legal status, age restrictions and risks differ across places, and that medicinal use is different from non-medical use. Students complete the “know / think I know / want to know” section of the cannabis inquiry organiser.

3. 13–25 min · Influence mapping. Teacher groups students into five groups and gives each group one influence: personal factors, peers and relationships, whānau, media and marketing, or wider social conditions. Using the five influence categories and guiding questions, students discuss a fictional scenario: “A 17-year-old is deciding whether to try cannabis at a gathering. They are stressed about exams, two friends are using, and social media presents cannabis as harmless.” Groups record: what the influence is, how it could contribute to the decision, and whether it is a risk or protective factor. Groups share one explanation; teacher draws connecting arrows between influences rather than treating them as isolated causes.

4. 25–36 min · Hauora consequences jigsaw. Teacher allocates pairs one dimension of hauora and displays the hauora consequences prompts. Students use the information panel in the cannabis inquiry organiser to identify possible immediate and longer-term consequences, avoiding claims that cannabis affects everyone identically. Prompts include: coordination and driving safety; attention, memory and learning; mood, anxiety or motivation; relationships and trust; whānau wellbeing; and impacts on school, work or future opportunities. Pairs teach their key point to another pair and add one consequence that could affect someone indirectly, such as a passenger, friend or whānau member.

5. 36–46 min · Strategy carousel and source check. Teacher introduces three levels of action: personal, interpersonal and societal. Students rotate through three prompts on the worksheet: “What could an individual do to reduce harm or seek support?”, “How could friends, whānau or school respond?”, and “What community or government actions could promote wellbeing?” Students must connect each strategy to an influence or consequence. Briefly show the reliable-information slide in the source-check and strategy prompts and direct students to named resources for later reading: the New Zealand Drug Foundation, Healthify, Ministry of Health information, and Alcohol Drug Helpline. Discuss checking authorship, evidence, purpose, date and whether a claim is exaggerated.

6. 46–50 min · Plenary and exit response. Teacher revisits the anonymous hook and asks whether students would now add or change an influence. Students complete the final section of the cannabis inquiry organiser: “One influence can lead to one consequence because…”, “One strategy that could promote wellbeing is…”, and “One question I still have is…”. Collect responses to identify misconceptions and plan the next lesson.

Resources

• the cannabis introduction and discussion deck
• the cannabis inquiry organiser
• Sticky notes or anonymous digital polling tool
• Whiteboard and coloured markers
• Timer
• Reliable website names for follow-up research: New Zealand Drug Foundation, Healthify, Ministry of Health, Alcohol Drug Helpline
• School wellbeing, counselling and pastoral-care referral information

Assessment

• Listen for students explaining how an influence contributes to a decision, rather than merely naming influences.
• Check group maps and hauora explanations for accurate, balanced links between cannabis, wellbeing and context.
• Use the exit response to assess whether students can connect an influence, consequence and strategy; address unsafe or inaccurate claims in the next lesson.

Differentiation

• Provide sentence starters: “This influence may affect the decision by…”, “This could impact taha… because…”, and “A strategy at the societal level is…”.
• Give English learners a word bank with: influence, consequence, risk factor, protective factor, dependence, impairment, wellbeing, evidence and strategy; allow labelled diagrams or first-language planning before an English response.
• Read key worksheet information aloud, keep slides uncluttered, and allow students to contribute orally, in writing or through the anonymous poll.
• Extend confident students by asking them to explain an interrelationship between two influences and compare the likely effectiveness and equity of two strategies.
• Avoid requiring personal experiences; provide a private question box and follow school procedures for any disclosure or concern about current use.