Do your teenagers listen to artists who sing about marijuana? If so, they may be also be using the drug, according to new research from the University of Pittsburgh.

• Dr. Brian Primack and his colleagues surveyed 1,000 ninth graders in Pittsburgh and found that they listen to music an average of more than three hours a day.
• The average teen hears 40 references to marijuana daily.
  
• However, some teens listen to music without any such references, and others listen to music that refers to marijuana twice as often as average.
  
• Those who listened to the music with more references to marijuana were more than twice as likely to use that drug as those who listened to music without any such references.

Other indicators that your child may be using drugs are secretiveness, moodiness , stealing money, changing friends, having lower grades, and paying less attention to grooming.

The study appears in the journal Addiction.

Labels: teen_drug_use, drug use, marijuana, music

Posted By: Aspen/CRC