Teen Drug Use: Marijuana Up, Cigarettes and Alcohol Down

LogicSoDeveloped

LogicSoDeveloped

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The latest update to the annual Monitoring the Future survey of drug use in American youth bears mainly good news, at least if your interest is in reducing drug-related harm: both teen drinking and cigarette smoking are at historic lows; in fact, past-month marijuana use is now more commonly reported by high school seniors than smoking cigarettes. Misuse of prescription medications in teens is stable or declining.

Nineteen percent of high school seniors reported smoking at least one cigarette in the previous month, compared with 23% who reported smoking marijuana.

“That cigarette use has declined to historically low rates is welcome news, given our concerns that declines may have slowed or stalled in recent years,” Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, said in a statement. “That said, the teen smoking rate is declining much more slowly than in years past, and we are seeing teens consume other tobacco products at high levels. This highlights the urgency of maintaining strong prevention efforts against teen smoking and of targeting other tobacco products.”

Marijuana use has increased: about a quarter of all high school students surveyed reported using marijuana in the previous year, up from about 21% in 2007. Also worryingly, the survey saw a rise in daily use of marijuana by high school seniors, which reached a peak — at 7% — not seen since 1981. The highest rate of daily marijuana use by 12th graders was 11%, in 1978.


Existing data suggests that smoking marijuana is safer than smoking cigarettes. Research finds that cigarette smoking is ultimately responsible for the deaths of about half of all smokers, mainly due to heart disease and lung cancer. Although a few studies find that marijuana smoking could also lead to cancer, most research does not show increased mortality risk associated with the amount of pot that is typically used — and the risks that are seen are nowhere close to those associated with tobacco smoking. Daily use of marijuana by teens, however, is another story: it poses a high risk of addiction and for problems in school.

Compared to marijuana, alcohol has higher risks for addiction, overdose, violence and related driving while intoxicated. Virtually the only measure by which alcohol use is more benign is in associated legal penalties.

The survey found that teens’ misuse of prescription drugs has also declined, in part, perhaps, because the medications have become harder to get. Misuse of Vicodin, the most widely used prescription pain reliever, was reported by 8% of high school seniors, down 23% to 30% from its peak, depending on the grade level, in the early 2000s.

The survey also found continued declines in cocaine use and the misuse of cough and cold medications.
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Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2011/12/...up-cigarettes-and-alcohol-down/#ixzz1gi9NYsaf
 
I'm glad to hear that. :D I personally think if everyone had the legal right and access to quality weed, I wouldn't think as many people would drink and smoke cigarettes.

Some people obviously still will but, still, I would rather see weed be fully legalized for recreational use and not just medicinal use.
 
I'm glad that a fairly reputable news source is noting the reduction in drug related harm. They accept that Marijuana is fairly harmless when COMPARED to alcohol or cigarettes. I'm not saying mj is harmless, I am saying that there is soo much more to worry about when it comes to alcohol and cigarettes.
 
I think that the rise in the amount of people smoking weed now instead of drinking has a lot to do with the amount of people who are realizing how bullshit our government is. I don't think you should do drugs till you graduate but I would rather it be weed
 
^ I'll agree with that for the most part-the main thing I regret about my usage is that there were times-and even now-where I should've been focusing on my future and my education when instead I was getting intoxicated. I feel like now that I'm (albeit slightly) older, I see that there needs to be a fair bit of balance in ones life to use drugs responsibly.

I'm sure that there are underage kids that use drugs responsibly but I think the irresponsible outnumber them. Out of all of the drug users at the high school I graduated from, only me and the friend that introduced me to erowid were into sites like that and this back then. We knew that MDMA should only be used at most, once in a 30 day period whereas other kids ingested it with no respect to their bodies.
 
^^^
True anybody can be responsible with drugs and even older people can be irresponsible I just use as a rule of thumb that I don't introduce anyone to any drugs that hasn't graduated yet because I don't want to be responsible fro fucking up their life that early if it goes that way. After 18 I don't give a fuck it's time to make some mistakes. And teaching them to be responsible is a big thing as well
 
cannabis won't stop you from graduating; if you are not smart enough to get through high school or lack that much ambition, you weren't going to make it any way.
 
RobotRipping said:
cannabis won't stop you from graduating; if you are not smart enough to get through high school or lack that much ambition, you weren't going to make it any way.
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Ha so true. Highschool is such a joke. Most educators teach the test then from there on its pretty much just memorizing and regurgitating the information. You literally have to do nothing or just simply not care to fail.
 
im glad that there was no propaganda..they were pretty much just stating statistics..for once they werent tryin to demonize anything
 
highhooked said:
Ha so true. Highschool is such a joke. Most educators teach the test then from there on its pretty much just memorizing and regurgitating the information. You literally have to do nothing or just simply not care to fail.
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At my school it can actually be quite diffucult and require critical thinking, problem sibling skills, etc. But that's only because my school is supposed to be extremely good and I take the hardest version of most my classes.
 
RobotRipping said:
cannabis won't stop you from graduating; if you are not smart enough to get through high school or lack that much ambition, you weren't going to make it any way.
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I dropped out of high school when I was 16 because it was too easy and bored me, and I felt the power structures were boring holes into my individuality, creativity and dignity. I'm now in a good college. Most of the people I know who dropped out did so because of the situations they were in, one guy had to drop out to get jobs to support his mom, brothers and sisters, I know a few who dropped out due to mental or physical illness.

Lots of people who drop out are very intelligent and ambitious. Modern American schools are, by and large, toxic, horrible environments that do more harm than good to many or most of the students. Especially down here in Texas, our school system is absolutely pitiful, I learned a lot more after I quit high school then I ever did while in it. The school system pushes a lot of students out of it, especially students who are different. Most of my friends with autism or asberbers did not graduate, even though they are the smartest people I know (I know 5 people with these conditions, 4 of them dropped out).

And yes, I smoked weed every day before and after dropping out, but my grades while in school were always good even though I literally did 0 work at home and didn't do much in class either. Most of my pot head friends graduated though, weed plays no part in whether one graduates or not, as you said.
 
I speak from my experiences man but what you say makes sense. I suppose that the people I know that do smoke heavily would have the same attitude toward life with or without pot-it just gives them a way to occupy their time.

I hated school cause it didn't make sense to me. I felt pretty alien since I was and am still pretty different from most of my peers. None of the rules made any sense to me and I don't mean in the way of not getting in trouble-I was never even suspended in school. Kids would just get in trouble for the stupidest shit. There were kids who received out of school suspension for getting caught using a cell phone 'x' amount of times.

To me, school in general felt more like babysitting than anything. They were more concerned about behavior than education to the point where it just seemed like a jail where nobody actually learned anything.
 
so... "Tobacco and alcohol use are at their lowest levels since the survey began in 1975" [great!, just not for altria group or inbev]

and

Regarding marijuana use, “It’s the highest rate we’ve seen in 30 years, so something is going on,” said Lloyd Johnston, the survey’s principal investigator. He added that growing numbers of teens don’t see marijuana as dangerous. [um, this is bad? people seeing something for what it is rather than it's 'doped up' stigma?] [and marijuana, minus some of the periphery damage of smoking, is safe given responsible use--in fact, citing another USA today survey in the 12/17 front page, over 50% of americans now support legalization.]

The emergency visits mentioned still take a backseat to alcohol, but the rising trend I would consider negative. Most of those were resultant panic attacks from the synth cannabinoids, which were obviously the most popular RC, and one class I don't miss. The other negative component of the article was the mention of bath salts, though after reading about an NC couple on bath salts whose toddler tested positive for cocaine, I won't miss this corruption of the RC scene either...shame for the many people who used these responsibly.

the article i quote: http://www.tennessean.com/article/2...etic-drugs?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE
 
and as college student in one of the hardest undergrad majors (physics) I will cite anecdotal evidence and note that the people telling you how the world works are probably(over 50% of my class smoked regularly) are or have been high. Smoke breaks during homework sessions, and post test review were common group efforts.
 
I can see firsthand results of this, so very very true.
Children years 10 and up (most start year 10/11, very few start year 8) mostly only smoke marijuana, and then at the parties, or gatherings drink alcohol.

Very few smoke cigarettes.

The people who smoke marijuana also seem to be the educated ones, the ones who sell it seem to be less educated.
But that's just from my experience :)
 
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