The popularity of marijuana, which is now more prevalent among 10th-graders than cigarette smoking, reflects what researchers and drug officials say is a growing perception among teenagers that habitual marijuana use carries little risk of harm. That perception, experts say, is fueled in part by wider familiarity with medicinal marijuana and greater ease in obtaining it.

Although it is difficult to track the numbers, "we're clearly seeing an increase in teenage marijuana use that corresponds pretty clearly in time with the increase in medical marijuana use," said Dr. Christian Thurstone, medical director of the adolescent substance abuse treatment program at Denver Health and Hospital Authority, who was not involved in the study. Medical marijuana is legal in 16 states, including Colorado, and the District of Columbia.

The long-running annual report, called the Monitoring the Future survey and financed by the National Institutes of Health, looked at more than 46,000 students nationwide. Overall, about 25 percent of 8th-, 10th- and 12th-graders who took part in the study reported using marijuana in the past year, up from about 21 percent in 2007.

'K2' is popular

R. Gil Kerlikowske, the federal drug czar, said he believed the increasing prevalence of medicinal marijuana was a factor in the uptick. "These last couple years, the amount of attention that's been given to medical marijuana has been huge," he said. "And when I've done focus groups with high school students in states where medical marijuana is legal, they say, 'Well, if its called medicine and it's given to patients by caregivers, then that's really the wrong message for us as high school students.' "

Mark Baumgartner, the director of inpatient treatment services at the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif., said it was "not uncommon" for young adult patients to show up with medical marijuana cards, which can be obtained to treat conditions like chronic pain or migraines.

The report also revealed that a mixture of herbs and chemicals known as "spice" or "K2" - or synthetic marijuana, since it mimics the intoxicating effects of herbal marijuana - has quickly gained popularity. One in every nine high school seniors reported using it in the past year; most of them also regularly used marijuana. In another sign of the synthetic drug's popularity, poison control centers received 5,741 calls about it through Oct. 31 of this year, almost double the number for 2010. This was the first year the report asked students about synthetic drug use.

Bogus incense

Part of the reason synthetic marijuana had become so popular is that until recently, it was sold legally, often as "herbal incense," in convenience stores and gas stations and on various websites. But in March, the Drug Enforcement Administration declared several chemicals in synthetic marijuana Schedule I drugs, banning them for a year. Congress is now considering legislation that would ban the substance permanently.

"If you talk to school superintendents and principals, they'll tell you about their concerns that this stuff was being sold a block away from their schools," said Kerlikowske. "High school students probably think it's not dangerous. But we know from the calls to hotlines, emergency departments and poison control centers that this stuff really is dangerous. It just really wasn't on parents' radar screens."

Declines elsewhere

While interest in marijuana and synthetic marijuana has climbed, the willingness to try most other drugs has waned.

The report found declines in the use of crack, cocaine, over-the-counter cough and cold medicines, sedatives, tranquilizers and prescription drugs like Adderall and the narcotic painkiller Vicodin.

Some 1.7 percent of 10th-graders and 2.6 percent of 12th-graders reported using cocaine in 2011, for example, far fewer than in the 1980s or '90s. About 5 percent of 12th-graders reported using ecstasy in 2011, an increase of about 1 percent from the previous year.

Heavy drinking among high school students has also fallen over the past 20 years, the report found. From 1991 to 2011, the proportion of eighth-graders who reported drinking in the previous 30 days fell by about half, to 13 percent from 25 percent.
About 40 percent of high school students have tried marijuana, although teenagers who take part in sports or other extracurricular activities are less likely to use the drug, a new study shows.

The findings are based on a survey of 4,097 Connecticut students in the ninth through 12th grades. Although the research is not a nationally representative sample, the results are similar to other national studies and offer a glimpse into the recreational life of a high school student.

The survey, which included 1,906 boys and 2,191 girls, found that while about 40 percent of girls and boys had ever tried marijuana, regular use was also common. In the study, about one in five girls and slightly more than one in four boys reported having used marijuana in the past month. The study was published in The Journal of Addiction Medicine.
High school students who took part in sports or extracurricular activities were less likely to use the drug than those without any after-school activities. The exception was teenagers who were employed. Students who reported having a job outside of school were more likely to have used marijuana than those who were unemployed.

Not surprisingly, various risky behaviors like gambling, drinking, fighting, steroid use and smoking cigarettes were all associated with higher risk for using marijuana. Depression and self-harm behaviors like cutting were also associated with marijuana use.

“There is considerable evidence that it’s not just an innocent sort of thing,” said the lead author, Ty S. Schepis, assistant professor of psychology at Texas State University in San Marcos. “This is a period of strong change in the brain. We’re very concerned that marijuana alters the ways in which adolescent brains normally mature, particularly among heavy users.”


source: chron