Law enforcement agencies recently searched more than 100 homes in Sacramento, Calif., in what the U.S. Justice Department said was “part of a sweeping crackdown on a criminal marijuana growing operation funded by China-based criminal groups.”

Teen drug usage is at an all-time high.

It is important to stop this while we can, because students using drugs such as marijuana can eventually head down a path of  not finishing school or maybe even homelessness.

According to CNN, “More high school seniors now use marijuana on a daily basis than smoke cigarettes. When asked how frequently they had used in the past month, just 4.2 percent of 12th-graders said they smoked cigarettes every day, but 5.9 percent said they used marijuana.”

Richard Miech, research professor of drug use trends at University of Michigan, said he fears “that we may be seeing the start of a long-term increase in marijuana use among youth.”

Little do students know, even marijuana has its consequences. According to drugabuse.org,”When people begin using marijuana as teenagers, the drug may impair thinking, memory, and learning functions and affect how the brain builds connections between the areas necessary for these functions.”

This is important because it could be one of the main reasons students fail to even graduate high school.

“Every year, over 1.2 million students drop out of high school in the United States alone,” says Dosomething.gov. “That’s a student every 26 seconds – or 7,000 a day. About 25 percent of high school freshmen fail to graduate from high school on time.”

This is important because these are the same numbers that cause about .5 percent of the U.S. population to use emergency shelters or a transitional housing program, according to heritage.org, which adds that 49.5 percent of minimum-wage earners who are over the age of 24 bear this out: Over half work part-time jobs making $15,080 at the current federal minimum wage of $7.25.

This can be hard because the cost of living has definitely gone up, especially when you live in states like Florida where according to Smartassest.com, “Today, if you want to buy a home in Florida, the average sales price is $200,000 according to realtor.com. But home prices vary greatly by county. According to Zillow.com, the median sales price in Monroe County is $409,000, while the median sales price in Hardee County is just $50,000.”

So can you see how one thing can lead to a downward spiral of your future? The consequences are clear. Teens, be smart. Don’t start.