According to a new report released Tuesday by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, more and more teenagers are boozing it up and getting stoned on grass.
The increase reverses a decade of drops in alcohol and marijuana use by the younger set and that has some people worried.
“I’m a little worried that we may be seeing the leading edge of a trend here,” Sean Clarkin, director of strategy for the anti-drug group, told The Associated Press. “Historically you do see the increase in recreational drugs before you see increases in some of the harder drugs.”
The study shows an 11 percent increase in drinking by high-school age teens and a fix percent hike in pot use.
In hard numbers, it means 6.5 million teenagers are boozing.
Use of Ecstasy, a harder drug, is also on the rise.
Related articles
- Study: Teen pot, alcohol use rising (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
- AP IMPACT: Drug Gangs Taking Over US Public Lands (abcnews.go.com)
- Easier To Get Than Beer (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](https://i0.wp.com/img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?w=840&ssl=1)
9 thoughts on “More teens getting drunk, stoned”
Heck, in WW-II, hemp was grown for ropes and practical things of that nature and could be used now as an enviromentally freindly way to avoid cutting trees.
Mary Jane would never harm anyone, she’s a nice girl (Hee hee)
The laws relating to pot are far more dangerous and have done far more physical and mental harm to users than pot ever did or ever will.
Of course those “laws” were the creation of the corporate/government clique for their interests and their interests alone. From my understanding the likes of Anslinger, Hearst and Mellon did quite well out of “reefer madness” for the usual reasons: money and control.
I also find it curious that “youth” are usually the target when it comes to exposing drug use; after all is such youthful behaviour not learned from their parents and adult role models?
If we want to stop kids using drugs then we adults will have to set the example and refrain from such practices ourselves. It will never happen (for most adults are hypocrites – do as I say, not as I do), so best we learn to live and accept such ubiquitous behaviour in an adult and resaonable fashion.
An alcoholic has a medical problem and goes to hospital while the pot smoker is a criminal and goes to jail.
Kids can see hypocrites from a mile off, as such have no respect for adults who tell them not to smoke dope while those very same adults quite happily drink themselves silly.
It’s a funny old world, full of funny old hypocrites.
No matter the mechanics of the high or what it is derived from, someone will exploit it for personal gain if they can control it for profit. Long ago our pharmaceutical brethren recognized natures natural remedies as an open threat to the profits and the bottom line wherein they dwell, and damn their Hippocratic oath they echoed !
Now we have attention deficit disorder syndrome to name one manufactured malaise. There was a day not long ago that a good and honest trip to the woodshed was a lifelong cure. Today that short walk will bring not only stigma but a prison sentence. Once burned twice shy is not allowed.
Theirs is the land of denial of anything beneficial that is free, natural , and cannot be taxed to the hilt. As long as application of the law defers their conduct and flies below their radar of moral conduct, hence horrible wrong will not be done to the power they feel instills them with rights over ordinary man. The more crowded the psychiatrists office the larger the portfolio of their false indignation resulting in archaic laws of class suppression.
In the RVN it was known, stay away from the juicers, their trigger fingers are itchy and slow.
Lordy, Lordy in my last moments here, may I please have a toke on a big bowl of the Black Lotus.
Yeah the trillion dollar war on drugs is a resounding success. Our political masterminds learned nothing from alcohol prohibition. Decriminalize and drug-related crime will nearly vanish.
The ‘gateway drug’ argument is bogus, just another scare tactic aimed at clueless ne’er-do-wells to keep pot illegal. In my many years of personal testing (unscientific, of course) I’ve never had the urge to do heroin or crack, although I have done my share of acid and coke. That’s not because pot made me do it, but because tripping and doing coke was damn fun.
If people want to do these things, they’re damn well going to do them. What’s more harmful to an eighteen year-old, smoking a little pot or ten years in prison for getting caught with a bag of weed?
I find it amusing that we have some eighty million Americans on ‘legal’ psychotropic drugs that are far more lethal than marijuana. In fact, almost every recent mass shooter was either on anti-depressants or had a prescription but stopped taking them. For some crazy reason, pot doesn’t seem to make any one want to go out and kill people.
So what! It’s what young people do — and have done — throughout history. It’s only a problem because puritanical hypocrites make it one. Teach your kids how to drink and “toke” responsibily — underscore the dangers of “poppin’ pills” and “huffing”– and the odds are good that they’ll be OK.
Almandine. In the sixties I had two kids in school. We lived in Topanga Canyon in the midst of the culture you quoted. We had no television and my kids had no idea of the culture of drop out, etc. We did not even have a radio announcing all the new ways to get stoned. I set the culture, not the rest of the world. We learned right from wrong and until my kids hit the age of maturity drugs, alcohol were considered wrong. We had many alcoholics and some drug users in the family and my kids saw the results of the addictions. We had horses and lots of riding trails in our area and as long as my rules were followed life was wonderful for my kids and their friends. Their habits were controlled from day one and by the time they hit CAL Berkeley, their habits were healthy ones. Blaming a culture that was always a choice, is an excuse. I blame television for most of the problems and we simply did not have one. You don’t miss what you never had.
Weedblog, I don’t blame the government enforcement against drugs. Congress was elected to prohibit lots of things. I blame the families for not being heads of the households. Apparently having children is a commitment to the churches not to the children themselves.
Marijuana use is not a serious thing by itself, it’s the ridiculous laws that people need to worry about. Get caught in the wrong state with a gram of weed or a used pipe, and you could be looking at some serious fines and jail time. Want to know what the marijuana laws are in your state? Go to https://www.theweedblog.com. There is lots of interesting stuff on that website.
One only needs to look around at the state of our union to find causes. Liberty and personal responsibility are being assaulted, the economy is in the tank, joblessness is rampant, societal models (political, business, sports, & cultural personages)are either outright thieves, skimming from the top – openly, or immoral in many other ways… in sum, why would we expect anything different from the youngsters amongst us?
This reminds of the last time this happened, when the mantra of the day was: “tune in, turn on, and drop out”. What better way to deny reality of its death grip?
What can anyone say or do about this problem? To think of the waste of brain development found in our younger family members is a problem. The brain demands the drugs and the “moral values” become redundant. The family is no longer in control.
Everyone waits for Big Daddy to solve the problem.
Comments are closed.