According to a new survey done by the Partnership for a Drug Free America, more teenagers are smoking marijuana with nearly 1 in 10 teens are smoking up, twenty or more times per month. In their report, the Partnership also commented that prescription drug abuse amongst youth in grades 9-12 may have decreased a little but is still another dominant issue.
Contributing to this issue may be the fact that many parents, while not condoning it outright, don’t find it to be a very big deal. The use of harder drugs, like cocaine, meth and heroine, is scarier to parents. Yet some pills and a little marijuana, which is a proven gateway drug, is no big deal.
What Is The Scope Of The Teen Drug Problem
Cocaine and methamphetamine use has apparently stabilized in recent years, according to this same survey. Marijuana use, however, is skyrocketing with usage increased by about five times. This equates to roughly 1.5 million American teens smoking pot 20 times (or more) per month, a statistic which overflows into future years and projects the type of drug problem we will continue to have if teen drug usage is not properly nipped in the bud.
One teenager out of Texas reported that his marijuana use began at the age of 13. He stated that he enjoyed being high, felt happier and everything was brighter when he would smoke pot. Within a year of his marijuana use, he began abusing prescription drugs and passed out at school one day as a result. At 14, he was arrested and was sent to rehab.
These marijuana findings seem to relate closely with a study done recently at the University of Michigan, which also found marijuana use to be on the rise over the past several years. A reverse statistic from the past decade, where it was seen to be declining.
This may be due in part to the fact that marijuana is often misunderstood to be a “safe” or “natural” drug. In truth, more teenagers smoking marijuana means more harder drug use later.
The Partnership’s study also presents a link between regular teenage marijuana use and the use of other drugs. Youth who smoke marijuana 20 times or more per month are twice as likely as others to use harder drugs such as cocaine, crack or ecstasy. This disproves the relaxed view of some that “a little pot” is harmless.
Further findings showed that one in ten teens had used a powerful prescription pain medication, such as Vicodin or Oxy Contin, (without a prescription) in the past year. Also according to the survey, a little over half of Hispanic teens said they had used an illegal drug of some kind (cocaine, ecstasy, marijuana, etc.) in the past year. Approximately 39% of Caucasian teens surveyed reported the same thing.
The Partnership for a Drug Free America is best known for its “this is your brain on drugs” TV advertisements of the 1980s and 1990s. For this study, researchers anonymously questioned over 3,000 teens between grades 9-12.
What Will Help Addicted Teens
As a number of programs exist to help addicted teens there is in in particular that achieves a better than average success rate for recovery and also delivers special processes to free teens from drug use. The program is Narconon and the processes used are Narconon objectives.
These exercises can greatly help teens to take their attention off of their past drug use and behavior and look to their future recovery. Individuals who have completed Narconon objectives feel that is was a key process in their treatment.
For more information on teen marijuana use or Narconon objectives contact us today.