[DoobieDuck]

National Study: Teen “Heavy” Marijuana Use Up 80 Percent Since 2008, One in Ten Teens Reports Using Marijuana at Least 20 Times a Month



More teens taking hits as pot use climbs
By JENNIFER C. KERR

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.

This story is from the News Tribune: https://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/05/01/v-lite/2128092/more-teens-taking-hits-as-pot.html

Originally reported and the entire story here: https://www.drugfree.org/newsroom/pats-2011

I’m one that feels parents should know what their kids are doing, talk to them, and oversee their children as best they can. I don’t feel the kids should be allowed to do anything illegal.
If parents were all educated to know the real facts about cannabis vs. alcohol, prescription drugs, and tobacco they’d be in a much better place to evaluate, understand and comprehend this study. I don't think they are, I think most are overwhelmed with with media blitz that still stresses cannabis is a dangerous drug, clearly the science now available shows it is not.. DD

[Hydrosun]

So now cannabis is as bad as all the scrips that big pharma produces and kills thousands with annually?

How much fucking lamer can the federal argument get?

[mowood3479]

you black out one day at school and your a "drug addict" the rest of ur life... 16 year old should not be forced into treatment and sobriety... its a joke. i mean i dont even remember most of high school.... and this poor kid alex has to do rehab and all that. makes me sad. people figure out and self regulate their own consumption of drugs... for the most part. the ones that dont... usually die or go to prison. rehab is a joke, especially rehab for a pot smoking 16 year old. my two cents

[sso]

mjeh, never met a heavy smoker i didnt like more than the rest of the general population, this is good news to me

[Agaricus]

Laying the groundwork for the next prohibitionist panic attack.

Actually. it appears that kids are now having less money so they are not buying as much and not using as much either. This article is hyper cocksucker propaganda and total bullshit. Besides, what type of marijuana are kids smoking and who sells it to them? What other drugs are they offered when they go buy their $10 pack of marijuana? Are all sorts of prescription pills offered to them at school? Who is selling them pills? The kids are smoking smuggled Mexican cartel pot for the most part. Cartel dealers sell it in small amounts at crack houses and dirty neighborhood street corners. $10 will make a couple of small joints. These sleazy cartel dealers also sell crack, meth, X, and pills also. No one knows the quality or purity of these street drugs. So, when your school aged kids slides into gang and crime ridden neighborhoods to get a $10 - 2 gram pack of pot, they are shown and pushed to buy hard drugs also. Being easily influenced, some of them fall into hard drug usage.
Wouldn't it make sense to kill the market for cartel drugs and pot and get rid of these sellers that will sell to anybody including your kid? How do we do that? Legalize small amounts of pot sold through either alcohol shops or pharmacy shops to those over 21 with a valid ID! Wouldn't kids still get a few of these adults to get them pot? Sure! But not to the extent they are exposed to now! And since street pot would no longer have any value, it and these cartel dealers would soon disappear into the night and back to Mexico where they belong. And along with the pot, the opportunity to buy hard drugs would mostly disappear also. The pills are being sold through people stealing them from medicine chest or buying them from pill mill pharmacies and doctors. This problem is a separate problem from illegal drugs. And very little medical pot is being sold on the black market. Even this is likely better for someone than the cartel pot which may be soaked in weed killer or bug sprays. There really is no other option unless the government wants to pay for the damages done through cartel drugs use. Legalizing pot is a way cheaper alternative than to keep throwing cops and money at it.

[kmk420kali]

Here is another take on this issue--

New survey results released on Wednesday by The Partnership at Drugfree.org and MetLife Foundation indicate past-month marijuana use -- especially heavy use -- has increased significantly among U.S. high school students since 2008, even as abuse of prescription drugs has fallen and hard-drug use has remained steady.

That could be positive news -- teens are becoming more likely to use a non-toxic herb than deadly pills. But of course, since The Partnership is a cultish anti-drug scare group, these findings are causing them much hand-wringing and drama.

Those of a calmer, less hysterical and more analytical bent, meanwhile, are quietly celebrating the fact that modern teens are becoming smart enough to distinguish between dangerous substances like opiates, alcohol, methamphetamine and cocaine and a relatively benign herb like cannabis.


The Partnership Attitude Tracking Study, sponsored by MetLife Foundation, found that 9 percent of teens (nearly 1.5 million) smoked marijuana "heavily" (at least 20 times) in the past month. Overall, past-mnonth "heavy" marijuana use is up 80 percent among American teens since 2008, according to the study.

• Past-month use is up 42 percent (up from 19 percent in 2008 to 27 percent in 2011), translating to about 4 million teens.

• Past-year use is up 26 percent (up from 31 percent in 2008 to 39 percent in 2011), translating to about 6 million teens.

• Lifetime use is up 21 percent (up from 39 percent in 2008 to 47 percent in 2011), translating to about 8 million teens.

This marks a clear upward trend in teen marijuana use over the past three years. "The last time marijuana use was this widespread among teens was in 1998 when past month use of marijuana was at 27 percent," according to the study.


Decoder
Drama king: Steve Pasierb of The Partnership at Drugfree.org: "Heavy use of marijuana -- particularly beginning in adolescence -- brings the risk of serous problems"
"These findings are deeply disturbing as the increases we're seeing in heavy, regular marijuana use among high school students can spell real trouble for these teens later on," claimed Steve Pasierb, president and CEO of The Partnership at Drugfree.org.

Yeah, of course you're right Steve -- regular marijuana use as a teen can later result in "real trouble" like, oh, becoming President, or winning the Olympics, or becoming the biggest country music star on the planet. Better watch out for that stuff!

"Heavy use of marijuana -- particularly beginning in adolescence -- brings the risk of serious problems and our data show it is linked to involvement in alcohol and other drugs as well," Pasierb bullshitted. "Kids who begin using drugs or alcohol as teenagers are more likely to struggle with substance abuse disorders when compared to those who start using after the teenage years."

According to the study, "Teen marijuana use has become a normalized behavior" (horrors!), with teens now reporting more of their peers smoking cannabis and only 26 percent agreeing with the statement, "In my school, most teens don't smoke marijuana" (down from 37 percent in 2008).

Seventy-one percent of teens say they have friends who use marijuana regularly, up from 64 percent in 2008.

Social disapproval of marijuana among teens remained the same since 2008, with 61 percent of teens saying they disapprove of their peers using cannabis. (About 41 percent, the "goody two-shoes" contingent, say they "strongly disapprove.")

The PATS data also found an erosion of anti-marijuana attitudes among teens, with only about half of teens (51 percent) saying they see "great risk" in using marijuana, down significantly from 61 percent in 2005. My oh my, these kids are learning the actual facts about cannabis! What ever shall we do?!


New Public Health
Prof. Lloyd Johnston, University of Michigan: "We believe that this decline in perceived risk has played an important role in the increases in teen use of marijuana, as it has done in the past"
"We have also seen a considerable decline over the past five years in the proportion of teens seeing great risk associated with marijuana use," said Professor Lloyd Johnson, "principal investigator" of the nationwide Monitoring the Future study conducted at the University of Michigan.

"We believe that this decline in perceived risk has played an important role in the increases in teen use of marijuana, as it has done in the past," tut-tutted Professor Johnson. "The fact that perceived risk is still falling portends a further increase in use."

Those damn, pesky facts, eh, Professor? Wouldn't academic life be ever-so-much easier without them?

The organizations behind the study went well beyond its actual findings in their press release, wildly claiming that the removal of wasteful, ineffective programs such as The National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign (which was actually shown to increase drug use) and the elimination of the Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program "left a gaping hole where drug and alcohol education resources should be."

What they didn't mention was the fact that the laughably inaccurate, alarmist "information" provided by these groups was so ridiculous, so transparently false, that the expensive programs were a complete boondoggle and served only to disenchant teens, making them more inclined to disbelieve anything "authority figures" tell them about marijuana.

But of course that doesn't keep the prohibitionist drug-warriors from have all sorts of dramatic little hissy-fits about the supposed crisis facing our teens.

"The latest findings showing an in crease in marijuana use among teens is unsettling and should serve as a wake-up call to everyone in a position to prevent unhealthy behavior," claimed Dennis White, president and CEO of MetLife Foundation. "While it may be difficult to clearly understand just how dangerous marijuana use can be for teens, it is imperative that we all pay attention to the warning signs and intervene anyway [sic] we can. Early intervention is critical to helping prevent teens from drug abuse and addiction."

Study Contradicts Itself On Teen Prescsription Drug Use

Amusingly enough, the supposedly "scientific" study couldn't even keep from contradicting itself in their tawdry little press release.


Teen Over The Counter Drug Abuse
We are first told that teen past-month "heavy" marijuana users are 15 times more likely to abuse prescription pain relievers and 14 times more likely to abuse over-the-counter medicines.

But somehow, "the new PATS data did not show similar increases in teen abuse of medicines." Now, if smoking lots of dope means they'll abuse prescription and over-the-counter drugs at rates 14 to 15 times greater, then where are all those pill-popping teens?

The study's authors had to admit their numbers showed teen lifetime abuse of medicines "held steady" between 2008 and 2011 at 17 percent for prescription drugs and 12 percent for over-the-counter cough and cold medicines.

"Among teens, past year abuse of the prescription pain relievers Vicodin and OxyContin, for example, has plateaued at about 10 percent," they tell us.

Now, either "heavy" marijuana use increases teen prescription drug abuse (in which case we'd see higher numbers for both pot and pills), or it doesn't (in which case we'd see pill use remain steady while pot use went up -- WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT WE FUCKING SEE).

Meanwhile, it's the parents themselves who are abusing more prescription drugs. More than one in 10 parents (15 percent) said they had used an Rx medication not prescribed for them at least once in the past year, a 25 percent increase from 2010 to 2011, according to the study.

Teen Boys and Hispanic Teens Leading Marijuana Increases

The PATS survey confirmed that teen boys are leading the overall increases in marijuana use. Past year use among boys is up 24 percent (from 34 percent in 2008 to 42 percent in 2011) and past month use among teen boys is up 38 percent (from 21 percent in 2008 to 29 percent in 2011).


Santa Cruz Live
Additionally, boys' "heavy" use -- smoking marijuana at least 20 times a month -- is higher than that of their female counterparts (11 percent for teen boys vs. 6 percent for teen girls). Come on, girls, represent!

Boys' "heavy" marijuana use is up an "alarming" 57 percent, according to the study (I, for one, am not very alarmed), from 7 percent in 2008 to 11 percent in 2011.

According to the new data, half of Hispanic teens (50 percent) report they've used marijuana in the past year, versus 40 percent for African-Americans and 35 percent for Caucasians. This means, according to the study's authors, that Hispanic teens are "nearly twice as likely" (43 percent) as Caucasian teens (50 percent vs. 35 percent) and 25 percent more likely than African-American teens to have used weed in the past year.

Further giving the lie to the study's own claims with the study's own numbers is the fact that fewer teen girls are abusing Rx medications, despite the fact that more teen girls are smoking marijuana. Teen girls' abuse of prescription drugs "to get high or alter your mood" is down 30 percent since 2010 (from 23 percent in 2010 to 16 percent in 2011), and is down a total of 24 percent since 2009 (21 percent in 2009).

Prescription drug abuse hasn't gone up among boys, either, remaining relatively flat during the same time period, according to the study.

Even as teens become more accepting of marijuana use, they are starting to view pill abuse as less socially acceptable. The percentage of teens who "strongly disapprove" of their peers using prescription drugs to get high has gone up significantly, from 52 percent in 2010 to 58 percent in 2011.

But meanwhile, Professor Pasierb blithely ignored his own numbers, claiming the increased marijuana use -- and acceptance of cannabis -- by teens is nothing short of an impending apocalypse. Dramatic guy, that Professor Pasierb. He really should get an agent.

"These data set the scene for a 'perfect storm' that will threaten the health of a generation of American teens," Pasierb emoted. "Science has shown that adolescent brains are still developing and are more easily harmed by drug and alcohol use than fully developed adult brains.

"Dramatic increases in teen marijuana use, coupled with entrenched behavior of abuse of Rx and OTC drugs, puts teens at greater risk for substance use disorders, academic decline and other problems," he claimed. "With government budgets slashing the national prevention infrastructure and many prevention programs already eliminated, parents must step up to fill those voids, to protect their children's health and futures."

Here's a useful translation for those of you who don't speak Drug Warrior-ese:

"Help! Our moronic, ineffective anti-drug scare campaigns have become so obviously bad, they've been de-funded! Please pour more of your precious tax dollars into programs that demonstrably don't work! We need your money! Pleeeease?"

https://www.tokeofthetown.com/2012/05...drug_group.php

[DoobieDuck]

Kali good find! Thanks so much for posting. This shows just how the media has to keep demonizing "pot" to keep the issue viable....if they print the real, true story about "cannabis" it will not have near the impact on the readers and will fade away. Good work Kali...DD

[chos3n]

I'd say my usage is up at least 80%, if not 100%. I don't care either, I still take care of business.

[Infinitesimal]

parents should have the ability to raise there own children, not the government.
we all know and accept the fact that teens are going to party and drink, its become a right of passage In america.
but what happens is nobody teaches kids how to drink responsibly, so many kids over consume, and get alcohol poisoning, date raped and ect.
when the parents should be able to introduce their children to cannabis at an appropriate age for that individual child based on maturity levels.
said child should be allowed to smoke and party with friends on weekends and such, therefor teaching the child responsible use and lessening the likely hood of that child becoming a "burnout" or a user of hard drugs especially if they could and were forced to get it (cannabis) from an adult if it were legal and regulated like alcohol.

peace,
Infi