Adolescent Substance Abuse Articles

Marijuana vs. Alcohol: Which Is Having More Impact on Your Teen?

By Staff Writer

For good reason, parents don't want their teens to experiment with drugs or alcohol of any kind. But many adolescents do try drugs, especially marijuana and alcohol.

When your teen comes home obviously under the influence, are you more concerned to discover they've been drinking or smoking pot? Here is a comparison of these drugs and their impact on teenagers' lives.

Is Alcohol More Dangerous Than Pot?

Although many experts argue that pot is safer than alcohol, the risks of smoking marijuana are hard to ignore. Marijuana contains even more of the cancer-causing chemicals found in tobacco smoke, and regular use can lead to the following ailments:

• Certain types of cancer
• Respiratory problems (such as coughing and wheezing, chest colds and lung infections like pneumonia)
• Impaired immune system
• Depression
• Cognitive impairments (such as delusions, hallucinations, disorientation and impaired memory)
• Cardiovascular disease

In addition to the negative health effects, addiction counselors have noted that pot is a gateway drug (a drug that leads people to try other drugs). Young people assume that if they smoke pot and don't have an immediate adverse reaction, they can safely move on to alcohol or harder drugs such as cocaine, LSD or methamphetamine.

Another serious concern with marijuana is that it is often laced with more dangerous drugs like meth, without the user knowing. Before they know it, teens are not only addicted to marijuana but also to the drugs it was laced with.

All of this isn't to say that alcohol isn't dangerous for teens. Drinking alcohol has been associated with violence, risky sexual behavior, unintentional injury and alcohol poisoning, as well as the following long-term health risks:

• Neurological problems (such as dementia, stroke and neuropathy)
• Cardiovascular disease
• Depression, anxiety and suicide
• Cancer
• Liver disease and gastrointestinal problems

An Issue of Accessibility

Both alcohol and marijuana are dangerous for adolescents, but which is easier for teens to get? Despite the fact that alcohol is a legal drug, often stored in parents' liquor cabinets and available for purchase if teens know someone over 21 years old, experts and adolescents say that marijuana is now easier for teens to get their hands on than alcohol.

Reports also suggest that teens don't consider pot an illegal or dangerous drug, partly because of the ongoing debate about legalizing the drug in some states.

"There is the belief that medical marijuana is okay," Christy Alten, director of the adolescent addiction program at Keystone Treatment Center in Canton, S.D., said in an article on Keloland.com. "It's legal in some places and that makes it safe, and it's natural and God created it. So I think that confusion there makes it more vulnerable to using it."

According to Alten, 83 percent of the teens treated at Keystone Treatment Center have some degree of dependence on marijuana. Many teens start smoking pot in their early teens because they don't need to know someone who is 21 to get it. Young people know who the drug dealers are at school or in the neighborhood, and they know they can get marijuana any time they want it.

Research by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University echoes these findings. In a recent study, 40 percent of teens reported that they could get marijuana within a day, and another 25 percent said they could get it within an hour, making marijuana easier to get than cigarettes, beer and prescription drugs.
Some parents are contributing to the problem. According to the CASA study, 25 percent of teens surveyed know a parent of a classmate or friend who uses marijuana, and 10 percent say this parent smokes marijuana with adolescents.

Preventing Teen Drug Abuse

Year after year, teens report that drugs are at the top of their list of concerns. And year after year, studies confirm that the best protection against teen drug abuse is an involved parent.

"Preventing substance abuse among teens is primarily a Mom and Pop operation," says CASA Chairman Joseph Califano. "It is inexcusable that so many parents fail to appropriately monitor their children, fail to keep dangerous prescription drugs out of the reach of their children and tolerate drug infected schools. The parents who smoke marijuana with children should be considered child abusers."

He continues, "By identifying the characteristics of problem parents we seek to identify actions that parents can take -- and avoid -- in order to become part of the solution and raise healthy, drug-free children."

Regardless of whether alcohol or marijuana is more dangerous and easier to get, both drugs come with significant risks, particularly for still-developing teenage brains. Talk to your teens about their assumptions regarding the safety of drugs like marijuana and alcohol, and educate them about the very real dangers of addiction and dependence. By knowing who they're with and monitoring what they're doing, parents send a clear message that drug use is not acceptable, understandable or cool.