Drug Fans: More Teens Smoke Weed Than Cigarettes; The War On Drugs Has Failed

[xchrom]

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2012/05/drug_fans_more.php




A study released yesterday shows evidence of something most of us already know: teenagers like smoking weed. However, the study shows that teens apparently like smoking weed significantly more now than they did two years ago. Meanwhile, teens abusing other -- government regulated -- drugs is on the decline, which has weed advocates declaring the "war on drugs" a failure (again).

The study, the 23rd annual Partnership Attitude Tracking Study, shows that teen marijuana use is up, with 27-percent of teens (about 1.5 million) admitting to smoking weed in the past month. That's up from 19-percent in 2008.

In contrast, according to the Drug Policy Alliance, teens who admitted to smoking cigarettes in the past month is on the decline, with 22-percent of teens copping to smoking in the past month. That's down from 27-percent last year.

"Heavy use of marijuana -- particularly beginning in adolescence -- brings the risk of serious problems and our data show it is linked to involvement with alcohol and other drugs as well. Kids who begin using drugs or alcohol as teenagers are more likely to struggle with substance use disorders when compared to those who start using after the teenage years."
Source: redOrbit (http://s.tt/1aJVx)"

"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."
Source: redOrbit (http://s.tt/1aJVx)

"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."
Source: redOrbit (http://s.tt/1aJVx

The problem, according to the DPA: the prohibitionist approach to marijuana policy isn't working, and the "war on drugs" is a failure.

[leveymg]

1. I'd call that a major success, actually. Tobacco is the worst drug. More addictive than heroin

and can kill you in more horrible ways than a Blackwater mercenary.

The major reason that marijuana is still illegal is because it would probably put these industries out of business:

[sufrommich]

4. Why would pot put beer makers out of business?

From what I remember of my stoner days, they go together like peanut butter and jelly.

[leveymg]

9. Cheap beer and fortified malt liquor, anyway.

Otherwise, no argument on that point.

[dionysus]

10. Olde English 800?

[leveymg]

12. Go for the Gusto! Also, sales of really cheap "wine" are endangered - Mad Dog 20/20 . . .

Aromatic, fruity, hint of solvent at the finish . . . party!

[dionysus]

13. thats kid stuff.. try Cisco or Wild Irish Rose...

[leveymg]

14. Was WIRred once or twice as a stupid teen, but CISCO is an unknown to me (as a drink, not a tech co)

Recommended? How many stars?

Fortified wine is right up there with huffing rubber cement, or a favorite of the Russian Army - strained antifreeze cocktail. Stuff should definitely be banned.

Had friends who put all sorts of things into their bodies that I wouldn't. I was the one who could always drive, though, and I survived High School. Some didn't.

[dionysus]

18. Cisco tastes like cough medicine mixed with grain alcohol....

wild irish rose produces a drunk that i can imagine PCP would be like...

[leveymg]

22. **** 4 Stars.

That's one Hell of a recommendation, particularly from such an expert on all things Bacchanalian. I aver to your well-informed judgment on CISCO, Sir.

[sufrommich]

15. Oh my God,the iconic bottle from my youth.

Well, that and Boone's Farm apple wine.

[leveymg]

16. You must've hung out in the same grave yard we did.

Boone's almost made me hate wine and apples forever. But, I don't think there was much of either in that bottle.

[dionysus]

17. boones is like a fine wine compared to MD 20/20...

[Erose999]

2. On the other hand, the war on tobacco is going better than expected.

[trumad]

3. My 3 kids are in High school here in Central Florida.

They say that 90 percent of the students smoke weed.

[Robb]

6. I refuse to believe your kids are in high school

...because that makes us all much older than I care to admit.

Time fucking flies.

[trumad]

7. LOL...when I started posting here--- they were in 1st grade and Kindergarten.

[LeftinOH]

5. Cigarettes are expensive and difficult to get. n/t

[fredamae]

8. This may prove

Harm Reduction Education and Regulation Works!

[Kalidurga]

11. Someone beat me to it...

But, I will reiterate. Cigarettes are a lot more dangerous than marijuana. I doubt marijuana has 2000 different chemicals many of them carcinogens. One study suggests that even without all the chemicals cigarettes are just as bad, I find that hard to believe. In any case, I doubt that an occasional joint will cause the kind of misery that cigarettes do. Unless you get caught, the government is perfectly fine with ruining your life over a bag of weed.

[randome]

19. Marijuana has 400 chemicals, the last I read about it.

I think that ingesting smoke into your lungs will always be unhealthy.

[uncle ray]

20. thanks, once again for the opportunity to bring up the fact that there are safe delivery methods.

i suppose you'd refuse chemotherapy because pumping your body full of radiation is bad for you.

[HiPointDem]

21. what does chemo have to do with smoking pot? kids aren't smoking pot because they have

cancer, or for any health benefits, they're smoking it for the stupidest of reasons -- because their peers do.

the poster is right -- inhaling smoke is unlikely to be good for you whether it's tobacco smoke or marijuana smoke.

[Kalidurga]

26. I am not advocating that people should smoke marijuana

however, it is less dangerous than cigarettes. There is no increase in neck or lung cancer. There are less than half the carcinogens in marijuana as there are cigarettes, 38 to cigarettes 79. Most people probably no one, would develop a two pack a day habit of smoking marijuana cigarettes. Most will smoke a half a joint and be done. I have never seen anyone act in an impaired manner from smoking a joint. I have never seen anyone assaulted or battered by someone who is under the influence of marijuana. Yet, this plant that occurs in nature is illegal. I find it odd that something that causes so much less death and destruction than cigarettes and alcohol is illegal.

[randome]

28. Culture doesn't have to make sense.

I hear what you're saying, though. There is no doubt that marijuana is less dangerous than alcohol and tobacco. But smoking it still puts smoke into your lungs and that's not a good thing.

Alcohol and tobacco were accepted and widely used by Western civilization before pot became widely used. That's the only 'rationale' for why two of those are 'accepted' and the other is not.

As for being a natural weed, well, yeah, but picking a weed out of the ground, sticking it between your lips and lighting it on fire is probably not as Nature intended.

And yes, I know that marijuana can be baked into foods. But it seems that most people prefer the smoked delivery method.

[Nikia]

29. Marijuana opens the airways while cigarettes constrict them

As a result, more stuff gets trapped in the lungs while smoking cigarettes compared to smoking marijuana. A higher percentage of cigarette users use multiple times per day compared to marijuana smokers. The body is more likely to recover between exposures when they aren't as often.
There are some people who do smoke marijuana multiple times per day. In many cases, that is unhealthy. I think that legalizing it and teaching teens responsible use though will actually decrease that sort of behavior though.

[4th law of robotics]

23. So making cigarettes legal but regulated makes it harder for kids to get them

fascinating.

Amazing no one could have seen this coming.

A store owner, who stands to lose money and go to jail for selling to kids, will do a pretty good job self-regulating whereas a drug dealer who is already facing jail time has no reason to self-regulate.

[randome]

24. High taxes on tobacco and high profile campaigns against the health effects...

...have as much to do with why tobacco is falling out of favor as anything else.

[4th law of robotics]

25. Teenagers don't really care about health effects

especially long term ones. It's hard enough to get them to care about wrecking their car and being paralyzed *tonight*, let alone cancer 60 years from now.

I imagine what had more of an effect on teenagers was when the popular culture shifted from cigarettes being cool to being pretty much just for scumbags.

And if they can afford pot the taxes on cigarettes aren't stopping 'em.

[randome]

27. The new TV ads about people losing limbs because of circulatory problems associated with smoking...

...really made an impact on my 14 y/o daughters. Not that they are a barometer of American culture but still...the message gets through to some.

[4th law of robotics]

30. Perhaps, but those ads came *after* smoking became uncool and lost mainstream support

easy enough to say you'll never smoke in light of some health ad when it's also widely unpopular with your friends.

Show me instead a teenager who is being told by all his/her peers that smoking is cool who refuses on health grounds.

They exist, but they are few and far between.