Teens marijuana use

From the early to mid 1990s, teenage use of marijuana increased. This increase peaked around 1996 to 1997, and, since then, teen marijuana use has stabilized at these levels, showing little increase or decline. 

As this graph from the NHSDA survey indicates, teenagers are more likely to report past year marijuana use as they grow older, with over 24% of 15- to 16-year-olds reporting marijuana use in 2000. Peer influence and accessibility are determining factors in teen marijuana use. 

Many personality theories have been examined by researchers in relation to teen marijuana use. In one study, to categorize the personality differences between adolescent drug users and non-users, researchers created a scale of conventionality-unconventionality. In one study, the basic personality traits of young adolescents were categorized before their use of any drugs. Based on their personality traits, the adolescents were put into one of two groups unconventional and conventional. Predictions were then made on who would use drugs (unconventional personality) and who would not (conventional personality). 

Many study findings have hypothesized that marijuana causes psychological problems such as amotivational syndrome (lack of motivation), which links poor school performance to teen marijuana use. The assertion is that marijuana makes... 

One of the hardest things for a teen to do is to stop associating with drug-taking friends. Peer influence is one of the strongest predictive factors of teen marijuana use. And so... 

With only one such smdy conducted in the United States, it is necessary to look elsewhere for additional evidence of how teen marijuana use changes when the drug is decriminalized. Smdies published by governments in places where marijuana use has been decriminalized, including the Netherlands and two of Australia s... 

Teenagers with anxiety, like adults, are more likely to abuse drugs. Sometimes this involves drinking alcohol, but more often, anxiety-ridden teens try to self-medicate with marijuana. These individuals report that marijuana calms their symptoms of anxiety, and so they use it regularly. Teens who use marijuana often will experience symptoms of withdrawal when they do not use the drug, including nervousness and irritability—the same symptoms produced by their anxiety disorders. This makes these teens more sensitive to marijuana withdrawal, and they will use more marijuana to avoid the... 

Experts speak of perceived risk versus perceived benefit when attempting to understand the teenage trends of marijuana use. Most of our everyday decisions are based on a balanced scale of these two ideas. When deciding to do something, we weigh the pros and cons—the benefits and risks—and then make our decision. It is commonly believed that this risk/ benefit assessment is a primary factor in determining whether or not a teen will use marijuana. 

A teen s basic personality structure is intimately intertwined with all other predictive factors of marijuana use. Researchers have long hypothesized that marijuana causes a teen to behave or act in certain ways. Often, heavy marijuana use in adolescence is associated with such traits as poor school performance, delinquency, acts of violence, laziness, mental health problems, and so on. 

Do teens urge other teens to use marijuana Research points out that friends definitely influence other friends when it comes to using marijuana. However, this does not seem to take the form of coercion (defined here as peer pressure ) among teens regarding the decision to use or not use marijuana. In fact, research shows that marijuana use tends to flow from a more reciprocal relationship between friends. Thus, many researchers tend to speak about peer... 

Attitudes about perceived lack of harm from marijuana influenced teen use of marijuana more than parental influence. This association between marijuana use and a... 

Parents who perceived little risk associated with marijuana had teens with similar attitudes. A recent NHSDA reports that teens are 9.6 times more likely to try marijuana if they have parents who would not be very upset if they tried it. Although some experts hypothesized that prior parental use of marijuana might influence teenagers, research has shown that baby-boomer parents (who grew up in a period of high marijuana use) did not account for the different rates of teenage marijuana use. 

Teens may use marijuana to cope with family stress, low self-esteem, depression, anger, and anxiety. 

Achieving pleasant or euphoric moods is clearly a perceived benefit of marijuana use. But it is equally important to recognize that avoiding unpleasant moods or situations can be another important motivator and therefore provides another dimension of reinforcement. Both experiences—pleasure or avoidance of pain or sadness—can lead the teen marijuana user to become psychologically dependent on marijuana. In fact, researchers believe that teens who use marijuana to seek relief from emotional pains such as anger, depression, and family/school problems experience even stronger reinforcement for repeated marijuana use than those motivated by a desire for euphoria. Since daily users often seem to use... 

Where do teens rank cocaine According to CASA s survey, cocaine is the third most often used drug by high school students (following marijuana and LSD/acid). Middle school students ranked it as the second most often used drug after marijuana. Nearly all teens surveyed agreed that cocaine use generally followed marijuana use—teens... 

Government efforts to reduce marijuana use have focused, among other areas, on reducing teen use. Many studies, however, show that marijuana prohibition seems to have had exactly the opposite effect on cannabis use by teenagers. 

Since marijuana prohibition began in 1937, marijuana use by teens has skyrocketed. In 1937 only 0.4 percent of all Americans under the age of twenty-one had ever smoked marijuana. By 1979, after forty-two years of heavy penalties for breaking the marijuana laws, that figure had jumped to 51 percent. This increase does not necessarily prove that marijuana prohibition actually caused more people under the age of twenty-one to use the drug, but it does illustrate that teen use increased dramatically despite the fact that marijuana use was against the law. 

Social factors such as peer pressure at school or work as well as family patterns of substance use can also contribute to the risk. Teenagers who respond to pressure to use gateway drugs such as alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana in their early teens are more likely to develop substance dependence disorders than those who refrain from doing so until their late teens. 

In the past decade. Ecstasy use has exploded. In fact, although overall illicit drug use by teens markedly decreased in the past several years — including use of marijuana, inhalants, hallucinogens, LSD, cocaine, crack, heroin, tranquilizers, alcohol, cigarettes, and smokeless tobacco — Ecstasy use continued to rise, unabated (Figure 5.1). 

PREDICTIVE FACTORS WHY DO SOME TEENS CHOOSE TO USE MARIJUANA ... 

In further assessing the impact that the perceived risks of marijuana might have on teens, the 2001 MTF survey asked How much do you think people risk harming themselves (physically or in other ways) if they try marijuana once or twice, smoke marijuana occasionally, or smoke marijuana regularly The data from this survey showed that fewer teenagers today perceive a risk from using marijuana in any of the manners described above than did their counterparts 10 years ago ... 

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