Just in time for legislators considering the medical marijuana bill.
Researchers from the Partnership Attitude Tracking Study report that marijuana use among teenagers is up sharply since 2008, from casual tokers to hardcore potheads.
- past month use is up 42 percent
- past-year use is up 26 percent
- lifetime use is up 21 percent
The study says that the last time marijuana use was this widespread among teens was in 1998 when past month use of marijuana was at 27 percent. Among so-called “heavy users” who light up 20 or more times a month, the numbers have risen 80 percent since 2008, to about 1-in-10 teenagers.
Certainly, our marijuana laws are a waste of law enforcement money. Medical marijuana seems like a good idea. But you can’t look at these figures and not ask yourself whether we want a nation of high school stoners.
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16 Responses to Teen Pot Smoking Up
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Mommy and Daddy said it was alright. Decriminalize it.
Hold on- if it were to be legalized, wouldn’t it be regulated? And couldn’t such regulation include an age limit, as with alcohol?
There’s a whole line of argument that the black market today for meth and pills and ecstasy is a by product of the higher drinking age and increased criminal penalties for pot.
I support legalization and lowering the drinking age. Require drivers under 21
to use auto intoximeters if they want to drive and gradually require IIDs on all cars as the costs and technology improves.
Stop pretending it’s so bad for everyone, legalize it, it kills less people than aspirin, or spiders, or water. Take the control out of the drug dealers hands. When you outright ban something, it makes it more appealing. Imagine that.
You mind as well legalize it.. People that smoke it will continue to do so, as shown in the graft above. If you take it away from the drug dealers, it will cut down on crime, as there will be no (turf areas) as they call there corner that they do not pay any tax for !!!! And it will be more tax for the state..
What this article neglects to mention is that there is no known empirical correlation between liberalized drug laws and the increased use of drugs. In fact, contrary to what this article suggests, Portugal saw addiction and use rates decline when they decriminalized possession of all drugs: http://tinyurl.com/429o9yx (AFP article)
Legalize it, regulate it, make it a social pariah like cigarettes (smoked at half the rates cited here).
Graduated drinking ages aren’t a bad idea either — allowing moderate consumption in private residences before allowing it’s purchase or non-parentally accompanied consumption in restaurants and bars.
Since London’s study of the hallucinogenc impact of marijuana on the human brain and body, in addition to my own personal teenage collegiate experience, it is against the better judgment of both legislative and senatorial bodies to legalize this drug.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but alcohol can be consumed moderately in private residences. I think… Say you are having a Thanksgiving dinner with your family and your teenage kid asks to have a glass of wine- I’m pretty sure that’s not illegal. But, I’m not a parent or a lawyer so I don’t know for sure.
That said, the illegality of marijuana definitely feeds into its increased use in high school. Come on, remember when you were in high school – anything against the rules was the cool thing to do. I have a difficult time imagining that relaxing marijuana laws would suddenly lead to a spike in usage.
Steve – “Say you are having a Thanksgiving dinner with your family and your teenage kid asks to have a glass of wine- I’m pretty sure that’s not illegal. But, I’m not a parent or a lawyer so I don’t know for sure.”
That actually is illegal. It was legal for a long time, but was banned a few years ago in response to a bunch of news stories about parents hosting drinking parties for underage kids, after prom and things like that.
Also, in regards to the article – legalizing marijuana for adults, including age limits, would likely make these numbers drop. Surveys (http://bit.ly/37OJb) have shown that it’s easier for teenagers to get their hands on marijuana than beer. Putting the sale of marijuana into stores that would lose their licenses for selling to minors, rather than in the hands of drug dealers who never card, would make marijuana less available to youth.
I can get weed delivered to my house. For alcohol, I have to go to a store. Easier to get weed. Agreed.
We allow adults to drink alcohol, correct? Why then is the argument always that if adults, or sick people even, smoke weed, our children will become a bunch of stoners? Are our children a bunch of drunks today? Lame argument.
Well Patricia Berner…Maybe you got paranoid from the pot your smoked in high school. We are talking about letting adults smoke it is they wish. Pot being illegal is the stupidest law I know of.
You will not find one peer reviewed journal article concluding that pot is as bad, or worse, than cigarettes , alcohol, McDonald’s, candy, or walking on the street with regard to health issues. Do you realize how many of us have smoked ganja since we were around 12 years old, and continue to in our 50′s, 60′s, and 70′s?
I would call that a very large long term study.
We are not talking about kids smoking it, cause they do it now while it is illegal. So you thought you “hallucinated” on pot so the rest of us should not be able to smoke it???? BTW, I still attend universities at my age for learning, so I guess it didn’t do all the brain damage they told me it would. When you lie to kids, it just makes them want to prove you wrong.
The correlation I see here has to do with the economy. High unemployment among teens will make for more drinking and drug use.
If folks really want to cut down drug use for teens (and everyone else) focus on getting the economy going, rather than putting people in jail.
CT legislators, and Gov. Malloy…Cheech and Chong approved!
We need some adults in Hartford…seriously!
Open for Business! Hope and Change!
I’d laugh at both…but the state of our state, and our country, preclude me from doing so.