NIH survey: Marijuana use among teens surpasses tobacco.The CBS Evening News (12/14, story 9, 0:20, Couric) reported, "Meanwhile, here at home, when researchers asked teenagers about drug use, they got some troubling responses. A new survey found daily marijuana use increased among all the groups surveyed, 8th, 10th, and 12th graders."
USA Today (12/15, Rubin) reports, "More high school seniors this year used marijuana than smoked cigarettes in the past 30 days, according to government data released Tuesday." And, "daily marijuana use increased significantly among eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders, with about one in 16 high school seniors using marijuana daily or near-daily, the annual 'Monitoring the Future Survey' found." USA Today adds, "Marijuana use by teens declined from 2002 to 2007, noted Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse," although "today's eighth-graders 'have been exposed to a very different perspective on the way that the world is looking at marijuana.'"
The Los Angeles Times (12/15, Healy) reports, "Dr. Nora Volkow, director of NIDA, called the rise in daily use of marijuana particularly troubling, given that more frequent use, and by teens whose brains are still developing, has been shown to be more damaging to learning and memory than less frequent use."
The Washington Times (12/15, Wetzstein) reports, "Not only does marijuana use adversely affect learning, judgment and motor skills in developing minds, 'but research tells us that about one in six people who start using it as adolescents become addicted,'" said Volkow. Notably, "NIDA funds the Monitoring the Future survey." Commenting on the findings, R. Gil Kerlikowske, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, stated, "'No young person in today's competitive world is going to be helped by using marijuana' or other illicit drugs." He added, "'Mixed messages about drug legalization, particularly marijuana, may be to blame' for increases in drug use."
USA Today (12/15, Rubin) notes that Volkow and Kerlikowske "blamed the rising use among teens in the past three years on publicity surrounding medical marijuana." Volkow said that "more than a dozen states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana, so teens might tend to view the drug as beneficial, not risky."
PBS' NewsHour (12/15, Winerman) also quotes Volkow in "The Rundown" blog as saying, "These high rates of marijuana use during the teen and pre-teen years, when the brain continues to develop, place our young people at particular risk." Notably, "the researchers surveyed more than 46,000 students in grades 8, 10 and 12." The data revealed that "marijuana use in all three grades continued a three-year rising trend, after declining between 2002 and 2007."
The Baltimore Sun (12/14, Walker) said in the "Picture of Health" blog, "The survey also showed a significant increase in the reported use of Ecstasy, with 2.4 percent of eighth-graders citing past-year use, compared to 1.3 percent in 2009. Similarly, past-year MDMA use among 10th-graders increased from 3.7 percent to 4.7 percent in 2010." And, "prescription drug abuse also continued to remain a major problem. Although Vicodin abuse decreased in 12th graders this year to 8 percent, down from around 9.7 percent the past four years, other indicators confirm that nonmedical use of prescription drugs remains high. For example, the use of OxyContin, another prescription opiate, stayed about the same for 12th-graders at 5.1 percent in 2010."
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