Option 2: After reading "Marijuana: Know the Facts," are the rates of adolescent marijuana use increasing or decreasing? What factors do you think are responsible for this recent change?
According to "Marijuana: Know the Facts," the rates of adolescents' use of marijuana is increasing. Sadly, the numbers have almost doubled.
Is this my generation?
I am no teen... but I was just there yesterday. Just a short, 5 years ago.
We go to a party. Its readily available.
As a young girl in high school I remember going to a friend's house and people smoking marijuana trying to get me to do it. People rolling who knows what and doing "lines" of only God knows what. I stared in amazement... this is the kind of stuff I only saw in movies. After a short "season" of partying in my younger years, I am so thankful I never got too deep into it. But, oh, how the young girl who dropped out of high school because her life was ruined from drugs, pregnancy, or any number of things could have been me. That could have been me. What a scary, and humbling thought.
The rates of adolescent marijuana use are increasing...and increasing quickly. "The downward trend in youth marijuana use during the late 1990s has ended. In 2009, according to NSDUH, the rate of past-month marijuana use among 12- to 17-year-olds climbed to 7.3%.19 This is significantly higher than the rate (6.7%) in 2006, 2007, and 2008," states the article. According to the article, this may be because of, or at least correlated with the fact that fewer young people today see smoking marijuana as a "great risk". Its becoming more normal to do it to these young teens. I think that has things become more common, people become more desensitized- without always considering the long-term, or short-term consequences. Another reason I think could be that smoking marijuana is more common to see in the media and movies than it was in the past. Just like cigarettes made their way into popular movies and celebrities, now marijuana is doing the same thing.
It is a sad truth, but a truth that needs to be addressed. I was happy to see in the article that the government is trying to focus on more of the prevention side of the issue now. Slowly over time, I think people will start to see the truth in all this madness and hopefully teens will get a good grasp on it before its too late and things spiral out of control.
People in my family have smoked weed ever since I can remember. Like alcohol, I don't think its good to get addicted to or use in excess. I've never tried it, but I think the effects it has on you are much less damaging than alcohol or cigarettes. Obviously it's going to be different for different people. But I agree with you in that it's sad that so many young teens are getting into the party scene with alcohol and drugs so early and so deeply...they don't have much of a chance of being responsible with either thing at that point in their lives.
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