Study: Teen marijuana use on the rise

CBS News

(AP) WASHINGTON - More teens are smoking dope, with nearly 1 in 10 lighting up at least 20 or more times a month, according to a new survey of young people.

The report by The Partnership at Drugfree.org, being released Wednesday, also said abuse of prescription medicine may be easing a bit among young people in grades 9 through 12, but still remains high.

Partnership President Steve Pasierb says the mindset among parents is that it's just a little weed or a few pills — no biggie.

"Parents are talking about cocaine and heroin, things that scare them," said Pasierb. "Parents are not talking about prescription drugs and marijuana. They can't wink and nod. They need to be stressing the message that this behavior is unhealthy."

Use of harder drugs — cocaine and methamphetamine — has stabilized in recent years, the group's survey showed. But past-month usage of marijuana grew from 19 percent in 2008 to 27 percent last year. Also alarming, says Pasierb, is the percentage of teens smoking pot 20 or more times a month. That rate went from 5 percent in 2008 to 9 percent last year, or about 1.5 million teens toking up that frequently.

Alex, 17, in Houston, says he started smoking pot at age 13, mostly on the weekends with friends.

"I just liked being high," said Alex, who is in a recovery program and asked that his last name not be used. "I always felt happier. Everything was funnier and my life was just brighter."

Alex then started abusing prescription drugs at 14. He blacked out one day at school, got arrested and ended up in rehab. After being sober for two years, Alex slipped and smoked pot last month. Still, he says he hopes to work toward a more sober life.

The findings on marijuana track closely with those in a recent University of Michigan study sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the National Institutes of Health. That study also found marijuana use rising among teens the past few years, reversing a long decline in the previous decade.

The partnership study suggests a link between teens who smoke pot more regularly and the use of other drugs. Teens who smoked 20 times or more a month were almost twice as likely as kids who smoked pot less frequently to use ecstasy, cocaine or crack.

Other findings:

-One in 10 teens reports using prescription pain medication — Vicodin or OxyContin — in the past year. That's down from a peak of 15 percent in 2009 and 14 percent in 2010.

-Just over half of Hispanic teens say they have used an illicit drug, such as Ecstasy or cocaine, in the past year. That compares to 39 percent for Caucasian teens and 42 percent for African American teens.

The Marijuana Policy Project, which advocates legalization, says making pot legal for adults might help cut teen usage.

"We definitely don't think that minors should be using marijuana any more than they should be drinking or using tobacco, but arresting people for doing that never stops minors," said Morgan Fox, a spokesman for the group. "If we remove marijuana from the criminal market and have the market run by responsible business people that have an incentive to check IDs and not sell to minors, then we might see those rates drop again."

The Partnership's study was sponsored by the MetLife Foundation. Researchers surveyed 3,322 teens in grades 9-12 with anonymous questionnaires that the youngsters filled out at school from March to June 2011. The study has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Based in New York, The Partnership at Drugfree.org is formerly The Partnership for a Drug-Free America — perhaps best known for the "this is your brain on drugs" ads of the 1980s and 1990s. The nonprofit group launched its new name in 2010 to position itself as more of a resource to parents and to avoid the misperception the partnership is a government organization.

[14FREEK]

"nearly 1 in 10 lighting up at least 20 or more times a month,... One in 10 teens reports using prescription pain medication" Yea, right-no correlation there. Gateway drug my bohukus. Wake up dumassesss.

[Resin-Smoker]

Legalize it already and quit feeding into gov propaganda!!!

[micmac666]

"Hemp for Victory!" - WWII poster and book

[icuping]

If they legalize pot how will all those people who cant pass drug tests get a job? After all if it is in your system who is to say you didn't spark a bowl while driving yourself to work and not last night?

[14FREEK]

they will pass the test the same way they do now

[jonnyooh]

Just don't make the deadly mistake of smoking cigarets.

[amerilatino]

Yup, because this country sets suuuch a good example for it's youth. Only after decades-long legal and public opinion battles did the U.S. government acknowledge that tobacco companies produce what is basically a genetically and chemically enhanced poisonous, addictive drug. Major televised sports events advertise alcohol to be what it's not, an enhancer of courtship, recreational and socialization skills, and the media promotes materialistic, misogynous, narcissistic, semi-criminal behavior as "fly" while a block down the road there's a gun show on the county carnival grounds featuring a ferris wheel, Freddie the Clown and automatic firearms. This is the U.S., home of the sociopathic urban werewolf that's addicted to everything that makes money for the rich and pays taxes, and the government has it's drawers in a bunch because some stressed-out kids get a buzz on a little hemp????

[jonnyooh]

I agree with you on all but one point. As long as Liberals refrain from buying guns, the crooked scumbags who own America know they can continue turning this place into an absolute plutocracy with total impunity. Don't expect the government to hold them back. Our laws were not designed to protect us from America's crooked rich. They were designed to protect them from us.

[verrz]

To all those vacuuous adults out there that think pot and pills are "no big deal." You don't deserve to parents and your kids should be in foster homes with adults playing with full decks.

[honestabe8]

i am speaking of pot, not pills

[tomanyt]

@verrz...Have to agree w/honestabe8...get your head out of your a&&.

[Rodeo_Joe]

The USA has the highest percentage of prisoners per population in the world, higher than in the USSR gulags under Stalin. Half of them are there for drug offenses, 80% of those for simple possession.

Gulags for profit - the American way.

[hypnotoad72]

Is it just me or should we get Steppenwolf to do a comeback special?

Speaking of high,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGtT4cv5HFQ

Now note the lead singer wearing specs while his cohorts, with their close-ups, definitely look like they're in la-la-land...

And anybody with a few free minutes can look up the lyrics to some of the songs on any given compilation/best of album. There's one where they glorify weed - it's almost funny.

http://www.burbler.com/steppenwolf-dont-step-on-the-grass-sam-lyrics.html

("noble weed", indeed...)

[verrz]

New moniker suggestion: hypnoterd

[tomanyt]

@hypnotoad72...Your point?

[bobnjersey]

[Teens who smoked 20 times or more a month were almost twice as likely as kids who smoked pot less frequently to use ecstasy, cocaine or crack.]
-----------------------------------------
is that the correlation ... or is it ... teens who used ecstasy, cocaine, or crack tend to smoke more weed?