Drugs, Depression A Perilous Mix For Teens

Report: Depression Triggers More Marijuana Use, Leading To Dependency, Mental Illness

(AP)  Depression, teens and marijuana are a dangerous mix that can lead to dependency, mental illness or suicidal thoughts, according to a White House report being released Friday.

A teen who has been depressed at some point in the past year is more than twice as likely to have used marijuana as teens who have not reported being depressed - 25 percent compared with 12 percent, said the report by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

"Marijuana is a more consequential substance of abuse than our culture has treated it in the last 20 years," said John Walters, director of the office. "This is not just youthful experimentation that they'll get over as we used to think in the past."

Smoking marijuana can lead to more serious problems, Walters said in an interview.

For example, using marijuana increases the risk of developing mental disorders by 40 percent, the report said. And teens who smoke pot at least once a month over a yearlong period are three times more likely to have suicidal thoughts than nonusers, it said.

The report also cited research that showed that teens who smoke marijuana when feeling depressed were more than twice as likely as their peers to abuse or become addicted to pot - 8 percent compared with 3 percent.

Experts who have worked with children say there's nothing harmless about marijuana.

"I've seen many, many kids' lives negatively impacted and taken off track because of marijuana," said Elizabeth Stanley-Salazar, director of adolescent services for Phoenix House treatment centers in California. "It's somewhat Russian roulette. There are so many factors, emotional, psychological, biological. You can't predict the experimentation and how it will impact a kid."

The drug control policy office analyzed about a dozen studies looking at marijuana use, including research by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Overall, marijuana use among teens has decreased 25 percent since 2001, down to about 2.3 million kids who used pot at least once a month, the drug control office said.

While the drop is encouraging, Walters appealed to parents to recognize signs of possible drug use and depression.

"It's not something you look the other way about when your teen starts appearing careless about their grooming, withdrawing from the family, losing interest in daily activities," Walters said. "Find out what's wrong."

[ddaryl1]

pot smoking is down in teens by 25%.. METH USE, Prescription Drug abuse is up how much ????

I know 100''s of Adults whom have smoked marijuana as teenagers, and many still do. All of them are leading normal lives, rasing families and none of them are depressed outside of the normal everyday drag that any human would get depressed or upset about.

none of them have committed suicide...

Sorry I don''t trust anything the fed says in reagrds to pot, because they sure have trouble getting rid of the the real problems drugs.. METH, HEROINE, COCAINE, and PRESCRIPTION DRUG ABUSE.

maybe if they took care of those drugs we''d see a big time difference in this countries well being.

maybe we should ask ourselves how TONS of Cocaine and Heroine make it into this country past our borders. Obviously the FED is a complete failure here, since pot is grown locally, but coke and heroine are being shipped in thru our so called secure borders at horiffic amounts.

There are people getting real wealthy off of cocaine and heroine imports and I''m willing to bet its people connected to our government and border security

[duffyn]

I don''t have anything against people who smoke pot but I have to say. You are ruining your throat, lungs etc. I have two friends who were pot smokers and they are both dead now of cancer. Any discussion of legalizing pot should address the lung/health issue - but never seems to.

[tomanyt]

duffynight...Meanwhile, cigarettes are perfectly legal. Talk about lung/throat disease. Pot is nothing compared to cigarettes.

[rushman71]

duffynight: Sorry to say this, but they must have smoked cigarettes which caused the cancer. There is absolutely no evidence that cannabis causes cancer. NONE. ZERO. NADA DANM ONE!!!

[tomanyt]

rushman71...They probably got their information for "Refer Madness".

[rushman71]

tomanyt: You hit it dead on, right on the nail!!!

[rushman71]

tomanyt: You hit it dead on, right on the nail!!!

[hologram5]

Yeah, riiiiggghhht. Pot does do harm but nothing like this reader''s digest report claims. they are forcing anti-depressants down the throats of more and more children thinking it is ok when it causes much more damage than anything else. let''s take a look at that before pointing the fingers at other things like pot huh? let''s look at reality here.

[fllibertaria]

Total ***. Take "teens who smoke pot at least once a month over a yearlong period are three times more likely to have suicidal thoughts than nonusers". Same report says "They were more likely than less frequent users to have moved in the past year and are less likely to live in a 2-parent family". And "Regardless of whether the problem behaviors preceded marijuana use or marijuana use preceded the behaviors (which we are not able to ascertain from the NHSDA), it is apparent from these data that the marijuana users are exhibiting many signs of anxiety and depression and exhibiting delinquent and aggressive behaviors far in excess of the nonusers". The whole report is garbage.

[jen773]

What a crock. If your teenager is going to try stuff they are going to try it. If they are depressed and you take them to a doctor you are going to end up with pills that are addictive and with great side effects, one including suicide. I think we should be more concerned with our teens drinking and driving and ruining their lives that way over whether or not they smoke some pot and devour a whole bag of chips. Of course the experts say any drug is terrible, any drug but the ones they prescribe and make money off of.

[rushman71]

CBS, WebMD, FBI, DEA, etc.--they really think that we are stupid enough to fall for this nothing but complete BULLSHIIT!!!
Rules? We don''t need no stinkin'' rules!!!
Smoke da ***!!!

[rushman71]

ooops, I meant "SHIIT"

[gce65]

This is CRAAAP!
Note this "report" is from the White House that routinely rewrites real scientific research papers to say what it wants. These drug policy boneheads are probably just trying to counter the recent REAL research that found NO LINK BETWEEN MARIJUANA USE AND LUNG CANCER. Again, another inconvenient truth.

[gce65]

CBS:
May as well scrap this propaganda. Real science doesn''t support it.

[fibonacci_]

This says nothing about whether marijuana causes depression - just that depressed people use it more. And indeed they should. It is good treatment for depression in my opinion - at least for certain people. One of my best friends killed himself when he was 20 - and that was when he went OFF weed.

[theantirick]

what a dumb article tho seriously.......
You can take any group up people...find out some kind of % of people of them that smoke ganja using god knows what kind of questioneer that is supposed to be accurate within 5 %... and try to link two completely seperat entities/issues with their use of ganja.

lets say people who work at music/record stores selling cds and knowing alot about bands are big stoners across the country (for our purposes)
OMG lets write an article about this that sites music as a cause for smoking the reafer.

ask your self one question tho... would u rather take a bunch of chemicals chucked together into some pill that is made to flock with your head in some way that will help you. OOORRR smoke a god given herb that has grown for thousands of years.

[theantirick]

the only thing i can see ganja doing to depressed people is not helping them actually solve their problems in life that is making them depressed...which in some cases could actually help but let me get to that in a sec..
ALL I can see it doing is making them get into something that is normally boring to them like watching tv or playing a game and letting them "zone out" persay and stop thinking about their real life problems. Which in some cases time is the best thing to remedy problems you have. It could harm them by them escaping and not thinking about their worries or because it is illegal in america it can just add to this of things they have worry about. aka keeping it hidden and not getting arrested for something privetly in their homes. The only violence to do with drugs is created because government has forced it into the black market where lots of money can be made by dealers. thus these people arm them selves to deal with the cops and rival dealers. (why not let the government make the money from selling and spend some of they money to educate people about drugs and pump some money into schools, social security, whatever.

[theantirick]

the only thing i can see ganja doing to depressed people is not helping them actually solve their problems in life that is making them depressed...which in some cases could actually help but let me get to that in a sec..

WHOOPS THAT LAST SENTENCE WASN''T MEANT TO SAY THAT NOT SOLVING YOUR PROBLEMS IS GOOD. getting to the underlaying issues is definately they key. Which begs the question do our pharmacutical drugs even really help or is it just getting people "high" "druged/f ucked up so they stop worrying about the problems they are having......

[nonayabiness]

Someone made a point I never considered.

MaryJane is a God-created plant, and as such, a renewable resource. However, pharmacists and other experts want to solve everyone''s problems with their OWN drugs, the ones they make fortunes on.

I believe I tend to agree.

[homme]

Depression is something that "experts" don''t understand unless they experience it themselves. I suffer from depression. I have smoked pot. I have done drugs like LSD, cocaine, but not heroin or the new drugs out there like ecstasy.

Before I ever took anything like that I had a history of depression anyway. I find that the most dangerous drug today is the legal drug called alcohol. I could smoke as many joints in one spot and never get any higher. I could drink as many drinks in one spot and lose my consciousness and if, someone helped me to continue, I could actually die.

It''s interesting and suspect to see an article focusing on pot as the problem when there are so many variables out there. Marijuana is a natural plant that has been on this earth for millions of years. It wasn''t until the thirties of the twentieth century that the US government decided that pot was an "evil".

Do you know that the word "expert" is misleading. Many times people who proclaim such as just trying to get notice.

[fabrat1]

Our world is falling apart around us and we wonder why our kids are depressed and turning to drugs?

[hypnotoad72]

Our world is falling apart around us and we wonder why our kids are depressed and turning to drugs?

Posted by fabrat1
----------------

That, or it started in the 1960s and nobody bothered to take notice until now...?

[ubrew12]

Article: "Depression, teens and marijuana are a dangerous mix that can lead to dependency, mental illness or suicidal thoughts, according to a White House report being released Friday"

Oh, a ''White House report''. I''m sure that, as with everything else, that had nothing to do with its conclusions.

There''s not a single topic, from Global Warming, to tax cuts, to Iraq, to drug use, where this White House hasn''t been completely out of touch with reality and willing to use U.S. tax dollars to propagandize the rest of us that theirs is the path to sweetness and light. And the scientists can go scr*w themselves if they get in the way of the White House''s prior conclusions.

Hey, White House: seen any ''flowers and open arms'' in Iraq lately? Wow, that head in the sand is sure getting expensive for the rest of us!

[ubrew12]

I knew one guy in college who got addicted to alcohol (he was so large he could drink a six pack in one sitting). He had to take a year off to get straight, with the help of his girlfriend. He still drinks but is careful.

I knew one guy in college who got addicted to weed. He had to take a year off to get straight, but when he came back he went on to get his PhD in plant propagation (he''d learned so much about growing weed in his closet). He still smokes but is careful.

I knew one guy in college who got addicted to cocaine. He had to take a year off to get straight. But, he never really got straight after that.

My aunt died of alcoholism, which destroyed the last 30 years of her life.

Weed is the least of our worries. I wish the gov''t would legalize it so they could mandate a reasonable concentration in it. Todays weed is like drinking vodka, while yesterdays weed is like drinking beer. Its amazing to me that weed is illegal but vodka is legal.

[fibonacci_]

ubrew12, absolutely! Alcohol is very, very clearly more dangerous than weed - this is crystal clear, and you would have to be a complete idiot not to realize this. But humans like it so much universally that they make a little exception for it. Pathetic.

[theantirick]

alcohol i believe has been proven over and over again to be more dangerous then weed, but aparently that isn''t a good enough argument to the government to legalize it.
They think making it redily avaiable would give kids easier acess to ganja???? I know when i was in high school about 10 years ago I had a easier time getting a bag then finding a buyer for some alcohol. go figure. O yea but the war on drugs was supposed to make this not possible opps. failed. All the drug laws created was a resurgance of gangs and violence to protect and peddle their drugs.

[fibonacci_]

theantirick, I was in high school around the same time as you and getting weed was like buying a cookie. Incredibly simple. Not only that, but LSD was also very easy to get. Hmmm.

[mjpenterprises]

Amazing what the "moral majority" will come up with to justify the enabling of unsuccessful laws Remember prohibition? same principle applies here the longer its illegal the more adolescents will go out of their way to try it .But there is a crop of lawyers and judges and DEA and FEMA that needs to justify their jobs and the enabling of more laws NEVER helped "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin-

[brainteaser2]

Why does this article sound like ''reef madness''. I really can''t get over the promenade that goes on night after night in the TV show ''cops'' (TRUTV). They bust some poor, usually back guy with a bag of marijuana - then act like the war on drugs is over. The poor guy gets a ridiculous sentence. Meanwhile, some drunk (usually white) guy gets picked up for his 5th or 6th DUI and they''re going to rehab him. It has never made sense to me and never will.

[brainteaser2]

Why does this article sound like ''reef madness''. I really can''t get over the promenade that goes on night after night in the TV show ''cops'' (TRUTV). They bust some poor, usually back guy with a bag of marijuana - then act like the war on drugs is over. The poor guy gets a ridiculous sentence. Meanwhile, some drunk (usually white) guy gets picked up for his 5th or 6th DUI and they''re going to rehab him. It has never made sense to me and never will.

[beehive21-2009]

Kids , teens , etc., have been nuts and shall continue , remember ? The punks today have it made eg,. Cell phone ,babes sending nude photos what a wonder life.the wash out, in my time many didn''t make it ,and shall not today , not all the life forms make it, remember .

[atlanta30326]

What a joke...If they really wanted to stop people from smoking pot, they should legalize medical marijuana. Under this country''s health-care system, nobody would be able to get it.

[atlanta30326]

These days, pressure to do drugs is all around, so it''s vital that you reach your kids early. Here are some tips for talking to them about marijuana and other illegal substances.

As an alternative to drugs, suggest "cool" drug-free activities, like making a bird feeder out of a milk carton or interviewing local seniors about what the olden days were like.

Scare your kids straight with the terrifying tale of the time you were 16 and did bong hits in the back of an El Camino outside a Kansas concert.

Explain that only lowlifes like pro athletes and rock stars use drugs.

Kids may ask too many questions. To save time, just explain to them that the powder-filled balloons will keep them from getting sick on the plane ride back to America.

As an alternative to harmful drugs like marijuana, encourage your kids to experiment with safe, legal substances like cigarettes and alcohol.

Be direct, brief, and to the point. Remember, you only have about 45 minutes or so before the acid really starts to kick in.

Ask the editors of Highlights For Children to repeat the strip in which Goofus OD''s and chokes on his own vomit in a bathroom stall at the train station.

Whatever you do, do not talk to your kids about drugs.

[guest173]

I have actually seen in several instances where the parents were their child''s dealers and drug sources. and their other terrible parenting skills also contributes to the child''s decline into depression and anger. it isn''t just marijuana, you can''t let young kids watch rated R movies and be constantly ignored and expect them to be happy go lucky. parenting proactively with good morals is how we get good citizens, otherwise they will be criminals, but these parents are often criminals too, even though some of them are wealthy.

[guest173]

(and I did report these things as I could to authorities, who it seems ignores it. it is no wonder why Texas has such high child abuse rates, the authorities don''t really do much when they are shown abuse, even after the child dies.)

[guest173]

except for that polygamy case, it is out of character for texas to act on child abuse if you ever read their newspapers, it was surprising they actually took that report seriously, because of the high child homicides even when CPS is involved, so that was unusual.

[geneonlbk]

Pleeeeaaaaaasssssseeeeee!! Shades of "Reefer Madness" and the incredible MDA report put out by Bush''s father, the "sissy president"

Does anyone believe that this sort of *** only turns up after pot has been in use for abouty five thousand years?

[sharncedar]

The worst thing about pot is that it is a hardy plant that can be grown easily anywhere in the US. Thus it must be stopped - there is no way for big business to make money off this. Drugs must be supplied by the state, and the state must control them.

[rushman71]

SharnCedar: Money is the main reason why the government won''t allow the public to smoke cannabis. As long as it is illegal, the government can get more out of your pocket than if it was legal. If it would be legal to buy or sell weed, the government would get nothing but shiit, because absolutely no one would go to the gas station to buy a pack of dubbies and spend an outrageous amount for it because of tax purposes. At the same time, people would still continue to go buy weed at their sources, pretty much paying less for more. Besides, I would like to have a sample of what I''m getting before I pay for it.
Legalize Marijuana!!! For a better, peaceful America!!!

[honestabe8]

How does anyone believe anything Walters has to say? He is a lying scumbag, like McCaffery before him and whichever phucknut will follow him. The whole organization (Office Of National Drug Control Policy)was created to lie to the American public. I hope Walters finds himself on the business end of a drunk driver.

[honestabe8]

If pot is legal, less alcohol is consumed. The alcohol pushers know this, and they have lobbyists.

[rushman71]

honestabe8: For the first time ever, last night I finally got to watch the movie "Reefer Madness" through the internet. Thank God I smoked some shiit while I watched it. I swear, the mentality of that time period is pratically the same as today. Sorry, Uncle Sam, I''m not buying BullShiit!!!
Danm, I hate it when I got the munchies!!!