Local and national debates over the medical use of marijuana may be having an unintentional side effect: increased recreational pot use among teenagers. The 35th annual Monitoring the Future has revealed a slight uptick in the number of teens who admitted to trying marijuana.

A Dec. 14 Associated Press article provided the following details about the study's marijuana-related findings:

Marijuana use, while well off peak levels of the late 1990s, has edged up. According to the study of 47,097 students, among 12th-graders, 20.6 percent said they used it within the past month, compared with 19.4 percent in 2008 and 18.3 percent in 2006. Among 10th-graders, pot use in the past month rose to 15.9 percent this year from 13.8 percent in 2008.

In the past year, the share of eighth-graders who smoked pot was 11.8 percent, compared with 10.9 percent in 2008. Tenth-graders' use was 26.7 percent this year and 23.9 percent in 2008. The percentage of 12th-graders was 32.8 percent compared with 32.4 percent in 2008.

"The upward trending of the past two or three years stands in stark contrast to the steady decline that preceded it for nearly a decade," said Lloyd Johnston, who has directed the annual survey since it started in 1975.

Labels: teen_drug_use, marijuana

Posted By: Aspen/CRC