Daily marijuana use increasing among young adults

Source: http://thenationshealth.aphapublications.org/content/47/9/E44
Published: Jul 10, 2019
Author: Emily Weiler
Post Date: 2019-07-10 08:17:31 by A K A Stone
Views: 2424

Daily marijuana use among young people in the U.S. is at the highest rate in 30 years, according to new data.

The rate at which college and non-college age adults use marijuana — 7.8 percent — is the highest it has been since the early 1980s, according to the latest Monitoring the Future national survey results, released Sept. 8 by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The survey revealed that young people not enrolled in college have higher rates of frequent marijuana use compared with young college students of the same age. Nearly 13 percent of non- college youth participate in daily marijuana use, compared with 4.9 percent of full-time college students.

Frequent recreational marijuana use is shown to decrease cognitive and physical capability for 19- to 22-year-olds. Misinformation about drugs in popular culture contributes to the rise of illicit drug use and risky behavior among young people, according to NIDA. A decline in recognition of the risks of marijuana may also play a role: Only 30 percent of 19- to 22- year-olds saw regular use of marijuana as having a great risk of harm in 2016, which is the lowest rate since 1980.

School personnel can play a role in reducing marijuana use by college students, according to researchers.

“We know from our research and that of others that heavy marijuana use is associated with poor academic performance and noncompletion of college,” said John Schulenberg, PhD, the current principal investigator of the Monitoring the Future follow-up study, in a University of Michigan news release. “Colleges are not simply inheriting this problem from high schools. Marijuana use has remained steady in recent years among the nation’s high school seniors, so this increase among college students suggests it has something to do with college and young adulthood experiences.”

In addition to the marijuana findings, binge drinking remains high among both groups. However, non-college youths binge drink less — 28.7 percent compared with 32.4 percent — than their college counterparts. They also use less Ritalin, at 1.6 percent compared with 2.4 percent, and Adderall at 6.2 percent compared with 9.9 percent, than college students. Cigarette and e- vaporizer use has decreased among both groups.

NIDA called the findings “significant,” as they highlight the potential health and cognitive effects of substance use in the age group.

To address concerns around young adults’ drug and alcohol use, NIDA offers a toolkit to reach college-age young adults. It includes infographics and evidence-based information on drug use to increase awareness of the dangers associated with drugs and alcohol.

Post Comment   Private Reply

#1: Deckard    To: A K A Stone (#0)

Daily marijuana use among young people in the U.S. is at the highest rate in 30 years, according to new data.

No, it hasn't.

Despite Legalization, Adolescent Marijuana Use Hits 15-Year Low

Deckard posted on 2019-07-10 08:20:05   Reply   Private Reply


#2: A K A Stone    To: Deckard (#1)

A K A Stone posted on 2019-07-10 08:21:49   Reply   Private Reply



#4: A K A Stone    To: Deckard (#3)

Keep pushing those drugs Deckard. Hope it makes you feel good.

A K A Stone posted on 2019-07-10 08:32:51   Reply   Private Reply


#5: Deckard    To: A K A Stone (#4)

Keep pushing those drugs

I'm "pushing" facts princess - deal with it.

Deckard posted on 2019-07-10 08:38:46   Reply   Private Reply


#6: A K A Stone    To: Deckard (#5)

You are not pushing facts. Fact is marijuana use is up way up. Everyone is doing it these days. That stats I posted agree with that.

You are just pushing your fantasy of America being a drug state.

Deckard the little drug pusher wants America to be a narco state where every drug is legal and available.

The consequences of your drug fried mind are not something real Americans want in our country.

A K A Stone posted on 2019-07-10 08:43:38   Reply   Private Reply


#7: Deckard    To: A K A Stone (#6)

You have achieved peak dementia with your profanity-laced, delusional tirade.

We're done here.

Deckard posted on 2019-07-10 08:47:34   Reply   Private Reply


#8: A K A Stone    To: Deckard (#7)

We're done here.

Good for you you finally stopped digging.

A K A Stone posted on 2019-07-10 08:56:44   Reply   Private Reply


#9: Tooconservative    To: A K A Stone (#0)

I think this is one of those stats that is meaningless when you look more closely. Just because you can assemble some numbers doesn't mean it tells you anything significant.

With only a half-dozen states legalizing recreational pot, I think you have to separate the legalized states from the ones that still forbid the sale of recreational pot in order to get any sort of meaningful picture of pot use at all, let alone among young people who tend to be harder to study.

It's really a non-news story, one with "statistics" replacing any hard news content. The world is a stupider place for having had this bit of column-filler published as weak summertime news content.

Tooconservative posted on 2019-07-10 11:08:30   Reply   Private Reply


#10: misterwhite    To: Tooconservative (#9)

With only a half-dozen states legalizing recreational pot, I think you have to separate the legalized states from the ones that still forbid the sale of recreational pot in order to get any sort of meaningful picture of pot use at all, let alone among young people who tend to be harder to study.

If you're looking at the 12-17 age group, marijuana legalization doesn't apply to them -- it's illegal no matter what.

BUT, state legalization does affect them by sending the message that smoking marijuana is no big deal.

misterwhite posted on 2019-07-10 11:33:55   Reply   Private Reply


#11: A K A Stone    To: Tooconservative (#9)

I think this is one of those stats that is meaningless when you look more closely

That is why I posted it. Deckard found one pole and I found another that said the opposite.

A K A Stone posted on 2019-07-10 13:23:51   Reply   Private Reply


#12: Tooconservative    To: A K A Stone (#11)

I generally think that about 75% of all these polls are nothing more than:

  1. Polls make decent filler for slow news days at newspapers and magazines and their websites because it is fairly cheap and easy to do some crappy web poll compared to paying real reporters money to do in-depth investigative reporting.
  2. Polls allow various news outlets to use them to distract the public from issues of actual importance that the public might otherwise force the pols to deal with effectively. When the peasants are restless, publish a few more canned polls (which almost always support the editorial slants of the news organizations or advocacy groups or politicians who paid for the poll).
  3. The polls themselves are constructed and subjects selected to create a false impression of support or opposition to public issues, to create a bandwagon effect.
  4. Polling is about how people feel about things. Not what they know about things. Libs tend to win on issues and in elections when they can shift the focus from facts and rationality to feelings and "social justice".

Tooconservative posted on 2019-07-10 14:46:05   Reply   Private Reply