Drug survey finds US teens are smoking more but binge drinking less
WASHINGTON — More U.S. teens may be smoking marijuana than cigarettes but fewer are binge-drinking, federal health officials said Tuesday.
An annual survey on drug use found increases in marijuana use among all age groups but showed slightly fewer high school seniors were smoking than in recent years.
"These high rates of marijuana use during the teen and pre-teen years, when the brain continues to develop, place our young people at particular risk," National Institute for Drug Abuse director Dr. Nora Volkow said in a statement.
"Not only does marijuana affect learning, judgment, and motor skills, but research tells us that about one in six people who start using it as adolescents become addicted."
The survey of 46,482 students from 396 schools found that 16 percent of eighth-graders, typically 13 and 14 years old, admitted to using marijuana, up from 14.5 percent in 2009.
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17 comments:
If hippies had used booze in the sixties, alcohol would be illegal and pot would be virtually free. It is time for this silly prohibition to end.
Would rather my kid smoke a J than drink any day!
Why not just go ahead an legalize it already. People are gunna continue to use it regardless and might even have the a higher decrease in high school seniors if it is legal.
The prohibition of alcohol cost law enforcement a lot of money and the lives of law enforcement.
I know for a fact that it was easier to stop smoking pot than to stop smoking cigarettes. Tobacco is my final frontier and it's the hardest thing I've tried to kick.
I say this is good news!
"gunna"?
We're talking teens people. This begins at 13. Either your aren't a parent or your kid needs to be rescued from you. The first three people that posted here expressed concerns about which drug teens were using rather than whether they should be using them at all.
when i was a teenager is started smoking pot but didn't smoke cigaettes. then to cover up the smell from my parents i went to harder drugs, tobacco that I still can't kick 35 years later
Jeez people! I smoked a ton of pot (not really a ton) as a teen/young adult,you know why? Because it was easier to get than alcohol. Somehow after all the pot I smoked I managed to earn a PhD and a career. Kids are going to do what they want, and as a parent I can only help guide my children in the right direction.
That being said, wish they (the powers that be)would just legalize it and get over it!
It's because their parents are drunken slackers.
no they are being realistic
I'd rather have my child smoke pot then a cigarette or drink
I stopped smoking pot years ago, because I read in the Baltimore Sun that if you subjected a squirrel to two joints within 24 hours, he'd have more tendency to play with his nuts than to store them. So I quit.
Marijuana is not addictive. Period.
6:44 PM
The powers to be are just what they are because you, as a parent, leave responsibility to someone other than yourself. Yes, you may have "earned" a PHD (that someone else paid for) but I suspect that you will be looking to others in the future to rescue yourself.
Better for you than alcohol.
Dr. Pothead, LOL, thanks for weighing in.
Ask any police officer who he would rather deal with a Pothead or a drunk.....see what he says
The punishment for a crime should never excede the crime itself. Therefore, marijuana use should never result in jail time. If illegal, it should warrant a small fine at most. Think of the lives destroyed by heavy handed, if well meaning, prison terms for simple possession. If you think bong hits ruin a future do a stretch in jail for drugs and then try to get a job or funding for college.
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