Survey Indicates Marijuana Use Is Up Among Youth
On December 14th, 2011, the National Institute on Drug Abuse released the results of their 2011 Monitoring the Future Survey. The report showed some disturbing trends about marijuana use among youth. According to this report, daily marijuana use is up in all grades surveyed. The 2011 use rates indicated an upward trend in teens' abuse of marijuana corresponded to downward trends in their perception of risk. For example, only 22.7 percent of high school seniors saw great risk in smoking marijuana occasionally, compared to 25.9 percent five years ago.
Research has shown time and time again that marijuana impairs adolescent brain development so this is a very scary trend, especially with respect to the future. Marijuana is also known to exacerbate mental illness which typically presents itself in late adolescence.
Gil Kerlikowske, the Director of the White House office of National Drug Control Policy, expressed that the increases in youth drug use reflected in the Monitoring the Future Study are disappointing, and that mixed messages about drug legalization, particularly marijuana, may be to blame.
The report shows that marijuana use has increased among youth and that the attitudes about marijuana’s harmfulness have significantly decreased. It has been proven that when the perception of the harms of drugs decreases, use rises. The ruse that marijuana is a medicine has created a false sense that this addictive, dangerous drug is not harmful, but in fact helpful. The solution is for our government to increase drug prevention resources and aggressively push back against marijuana legalization for any purpose! Perhaps even withhold federal funds from states that fail to uphold our nation’s drug laws.
www.nida.org
Comments
I was the primary caregiver
I was the primary caregiver for someone dying from AIDS-related cancers. He was suffering from severe weight loss and depresssion. He resisted the advice to try cannabis because he had been a tobacco smoker and feared he'd start compulsively smoking again. He was prescribed Marinol, allegedly the medical essence of cannabis, but it didn't help at all. However, when all prescribed meds for his worsening severe nausea didn't work, he decided to try smoking cannabis. The effect was virtually miraculous. His nausea went away -- as did his depression. Not only did his appetite revive, but he regained much of the weight he'd lost. Cannabis transformed the last 2 and a half months of his life. He enjoyed being with his friends and family again.
There's probably no convincing those of you who are ideologically locked into the conviction that cannabis is just a psychedelic recreational drug with no medical value. But you are profoundly wrong. It works wonders for many ailments that don't respond as well to pharmaceuticals. Your righteous rigidity is heartlessly cruel. Those politicians who cater to law and order radicals are failing in their duty to obey the will of California voters to allow compassionate use of cannabis by those whose suffering could be allieviated by it.