IntroductionIs an illegal substance or a legal substance more harmful to academic performance? Studies have shown that early marijuana use is related to poor academic outcomes, including high school dropout rates (Verweij, Huizink, Agrawal, Martin, & Lynskey, 2013). The explanation for the dropout rate and poor academic achievement is that engaging in activities that involve smoking marijuana distances the student from education. However, there are cases in which students who smoke marijuana or drink alcohol still excel in school and have high grade point averages, so the students' peers play a large role in the disorientation that causes them to dissuade themselves from education. If so, what about the students who associate with those students who smoke and drink but are big on education? Would they still be dissuaded from education to the point where their grade point average would be low and they would drop out of school? Given that marijuana is illegal and alcohol is legal, does marijuana or alcohol pose a greater threat to academic performance? Other studies suggest that alcohol and marijuana are associated with reduced educational attainment which may be due to common risk factors such as socioeconomic disadvantage (Grant, et al., 2012). The study demonstrated that early marijuana and alcohol use had an association with early school dropout and reduced academic achievement later in life, however there was no significant correlation between early use of the substance and early school dropout rate. My study is to find out whether academic performance and substance use plays a significant role in educational attainment and at what educational level students are more likely to consent to alcohol and substance use...... half of article ......rimental Research, 1412-1420.Horwood, JL , Fergusson, D.M., Hayabakhsh, M.R., Najman, J.M., Coffey, C., Patton, G.C., . . . Hutchinson, D. M. (2010). Cannabis use and educational outcomes: Results from three Australian cohort studies. Drug and alcohol addiction, 247-253. King, R. D. & South, S. J. (2011). Crime, race, and the transition to marriage. Journal of family issues, 32, p. 99-126. doi: 10.1177/0192513X10375059Verweij, K. J., Huizink, A. C., Agrawal, A., Martin, N. G., & Lynskey, M. T. (2013). Is the relationship between early cannabis use and educational attainment causal or due to common responsibility? Drug and alcohol addiction, 580-586. White, J., & Batty, D. G. (2012). Intelligence in childhood in relation to illicit drug use in adulthood: 1970 British cohort study. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 767-774.