Pubdate: Thu, 15 Dec 2011
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2011 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times

EXPERTS: TEEN USE OF POT ON THE RISE

LOS ANGELES - Fewer teens drink and smoke cigarettes than in any time 
in the past 30 years, but the widespread availability of medical 
marijuana appears to be fueling a rise in pot use, health experts 
said Wednesday.

One in four of the 47,000 teens surveyed for the 2011 Monitoring the 
Future report said they had used marijuana at some point during the 
past year, up from 21.4 percent in 2007. The survey, which polled 
students nationwide in the eighth, 10th and 12th grades, also found 
that one in 15 of the oldest students used pot on a daily or 
near-daily basis - the highest rate since 1981.

For the first time, researchers asked 12th-grade students about 
synthetic marijuana, which contains cannabinoids and produces a high 
similar to pot but is thought to be more dangerous because it can be 
contaminated with unknown substances. The finding - 11 percent of all 
high school seniors had tried the substance - surprised researchers.

Sold by the names Spice or K2, the drug has been widely available 
online and in tobacco shops until recently. In February, the Drug 
Enforcement Administration reclassified some of the chemicals found 
in the products as Schedule I controlled substances, which made them illegal.

The survey also revealed that teens don't think of marijuana as 
dangerous. Because of that, "we can predict that use of marijuana is 
going to increase," said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National 
Institute on Drug Abuse?, which funds the annual study.

That pot has become more widely used as more states legalize the use 
of medical marijuana legalization cannot be ignored, said R. Gil 
Kerlikowske?, director of the White House Office of National Drug 
Control Policy.

"We know that any substance that is legally available is more widely 
used," he said.

The rise of marijuana is largely responsible for an overall increase 
in youth drug use over the past four years, said study leader Lloyd 
D. Johnston of the University of Michigan's Institute for Social 
Research, which conducts the annual survey. When marijuana is taken 
out of the equation, the proportion of teens reporting they had used 
any illicit drug declined through the first half of the 2000s and has 
been stable over the past three years.

Since 1991, the proportion of eighth-grade students who said they 
used alcohol within the past 30 days has declined by half, to 13 
percent, the survey found. Rates have also fallen in older students, 
with binge drinking among seniors dropping from 41 percent in 1981 to 
22 percent this year. Still, about 40 percent of high school seniors 
say they have used alcohol within the past 30 days.

Cigarette use fell in all three age groups, which was reassuring 
because the 2010 survey hinted that the decades-long decline in 
smoking may have begun to reverse, Johnston said. In all three grades 
combined, 11.7 percent of youths said they smoked within the past 30 
days, down from 12.8 percent in the 2010 survey.

Declines were also seen in the use of inhalants, crack cocaine, the 
painkiller Vicodin, the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder drug 
Adderall and over-the-counter cold and cough medicines.

Use of prescription drugs without medical supervision remains a 
concern. In 2011, 22 percent of high school seniors said they had 
misused at least one prescription drug, the same rate recorded in the 
2007 survey.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom