More High School Seniors Smoke Marijuana than Cigarettes
By Bruce Mirken
The federal government just released the latest ‘Monitoring the Future’ survey of teen drug use, and the results do not bode well for current policies. More high school seniors report smoking marijuana in the past 30 day than smoked cigarettes: 20.6 percent vs. 20.1 percent. And marijuana use is up (albeit in the same general range it’s been in for several years) while teen cigarette smoking continues to decline, and has dropped markedly since the early ‘90s.
Regulation of tobacco, combined with solid educational campaigns, has clearly cut youth access to cigarettes. It’s time for officials to take off their blinders and apply those same proven policies to marijuana.
Oh, and just in case someone tries to blame medical marijuana laws for the rise in teen marijuana use, use by teens has actually gone down in the medical marijuana states.
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So, what else is new? It was the same when I wss a teenager thirty years ago. Pot was more popular than tobacco . And it was easier to buy than booze or even beer was. I doubt that has changed, except that it is more expensive now, but kids have more money to spend, now, too. And, Bruce Mirken, just how much more legislation or policies should "officials" use that are not already being used to decrease pot use? It is only a misdemeanor to buy tobacco if you are under eighteen. It is not illegal to use it. Your parents can buy it and give it to you. Your old man can give you a beer at home if he wants. It is a criminal offense to buy and use pot,however. Heavy fine, possible jail and drug rehab classes. Yet, pot use continues to increase among teengers...along with meth use. More education ? More laws? Not working. Stopping the source has been a failure, also. They can't even stop the imported stuff, much less the home grown.
As with teenagers since I was one,anything my parents were against,was my banner. Anything that made you stand beyond the crowd,to be different,had more allure than the common things everyone else was doing.
Add that to the fact that drug dealers don't check ID's,just the money ,and drug control is in the hands of the ones that have them,not in any government agency.
The continued war on drugs does nothing but hurt our nation,and stops nothing.
The federal government and the state governments can't even stop drugs in their prisons ,so what is the next step?
Shall we drop our sham of being a democracy ? Since a majority of Americans believe that the war on drugs is a failure,including our legislature,why are we continuing funding this failed policy?
We are reducing services for medicare,trimming our budget on government programs such as food stamps,and yet we increase the spending on something that isn't working.
Write your elected idiots and remind them that their next election is just around the corner.