OVERVIEW

When a 16-year-old marijuana user was asked how many kids his age smoke marijuana, he replied, "Almost everyone I know at school. From smart to stupid." His friend was quick to point out that in over 30 years of studies, no one has yet proven that marijuana is dangerous. The first boy said that marijuana is not really a drug at all, but an herb.

Marijuana use is on the rise once again. Here are some statistics:

• The number of eighth-graders smoking marijuana has doubled in the last three years; the number of 10th-graders smoking marijuana has grown by two thirds.
• Thirty-one percent of last year’s graduating seniors smoked marijuana—up from 22 percent in 1992. This number is lower than the 51 percent reported in 1979, but a federal survey conducted in February reported that marijuana use is increasing rapidly.

James, 17, says that marijuana "makes you relax, it’s nothing big. It’s not like tweak (crystal meth), that makes you so you can’t eat or sleep. Marijuana just soothes you." The way kids feel about marijuana today is similar to the way their parents felt about it in the 1960s. Some kids even report smoking marijuana with their parents. Hats and shirts emblazoned with a marijuana leaf are currently in fashion among young people.

The danger to kids in experimenting with marijuana and other drugs is that they might get "stuck." Dr. David Deitch, director of the California Addiction Training Institute in San Diego, says, "...A kid finds out that friendships can be formed around smoking grass, which helps the kid avoid the anxiety and the stress of ‘Will they like me? How do I come across? Will I fit in?’ " Seventeen-year-old Natasha agrees with this. "With weed, you can be friends with anybody because...you just kick back and you don’t worry about anything."

However, the anxiety and stress of teenage years are vital to a young person’s development. These feelings force kids to learn how to relate to other people and negotiate their world. It is a time for learning how to handle difficult situations. If a young person’s stress and anxieties are blocked and the important emotional work does evolve, the teen enters adulthood unprepared.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION AND REFLECTION

1. Do the attitudes of the teens quoted in this article surprise you? Why or why not?
2. Why do you think marijuana use is on the rise again?
3. How would you deter a young person from marijuana use if he or she believes (as some adults and teens do) that marijuana use is harmless?

IMPLICATIONS

1. Statistics can only provide an idea of the actual numbers of teens involved with marijuana and other drugs. The responses of the young people interviewed for this article suggest ambivalence toward drug use.
2. The teenage years are crucial for developmentally preparing young people for adulthood. When teens create an unreal environment for themselves (i.e., through drug or alcohol use), they deprive themselves of tools they will need to succeed in the future.
3. Parents tend to be role models. When they condone their kids’ marijuana use, they are doing them a disservice. Therefore, education about the problems and dangers of teenage marijuana use should be directed toward parents as well as teens.