Marijuana Use On The Rise!

December 15, 2010 3:00 pm     Posted in Reality  Courtney - Bridgewater State University g+ page

See? She smokes pot and she turned out OK! Oh wait....

According to the LA times, 1 in 3 high school seniors smoke pot. This news is not that shocking to most of us, but apparently surprising enough that Obama’s “Drug Czar” and the rest of the old people in this country are up in arms (and probably somehow blaming Miley). Look, I get it. Despite the recent research proving the many benefits of tokin’ a little green now and then, many people still only see the negative side of things.


By Courtney

Studies centered on long time marijuana use have shown impaired coordination, difficulty with thinking/problem solving, problems with memory and learning. Chronic users may even have learning and memory loss that can last for days or weeks. Even scarier, “Estimates from research suggest that about 9 percent of users become addicted to marijuana; this number increases among those who start young (to about 17 percent) and among daily users (25-50 percent)” (Drugabuse.gov).

Yes, those are some scary facts and most definitely should concern us all. But one thing many people (namely those people who are freaking out about the recent rise in marijuana use) don’t realize is that those results are based on participants who are long time and chronic pot smokers, not to mention people who might dabble in some other recreational drugs.

So instead of focusing on the negative, let’s find the silver lining, shall we?

First and foremost, this study shows not that more teens are smoking pot but that for the first time in a long time, high school students are smoking more pot than cigarettes. Isn’t that a good thing? Couldn’t that mean that less students are smoking harmful, unhealthy, disgusting cigarettes? And even though chronic weed use may have some pretty scary side affects, I think we can all agree that cigarettes cause far more harm: ease of addiction; yellow teeth and nails; thinning hair; wrinkles; bad breath; smelling gross in general; and lung, throat and mouth cancer.

Yes, learning your sweet, innocent child smokes pot may be a little (well a lot) concerning, but isn’t a little pot here and there way better than chain smoking Marlboro Lights between first and second period? And in the grand scheme of things, it’s just pot. Yes, just pot. There are far worse and more addictive drugs kids could be doing. And just because someone “smoked pot in the past 30 days” (which is what this particular study was asking), it doesn’t mean they are going to be some Phish-obsessed stoner with a bong collection in their college dorm room.

With all the other drugs out there, taking a hit of a blunt (or, as this study referred to it, a “marijuana cigarette”) sometimes isn’t such a big deal. Just because high school students are smoking it does not mean they are abusing it. This is really not that big a deal. Let them do their thang, eat their Fritos, realize it’s not that fun and be done with it.

45 Comments on "Marijuana Use On The Rise!"

  1. maryjforfools says:
    Wed, 15th Dec 20104:33 pm 

    except…marijuana cause cancer too. bang up research.

  2. britney says:
    Wed, 15th Dec 20104:39 pm 

    um..smoking is smoking. bad for lungs = lung cancer.
    1 joint =100 cigarettes on your lungs.
    seriously make some brownies, kids.
    or not…. being around high people is seriously boring.

  3. jenny says:
    Wed, 15th Dec 20105:27 pm 

    um except both of you are ignorant and brainwashed into believing weed is bad for you. 1 joint definitely does not equal 100 cigarettes. that is far from the truth and a terrible misconception; there are less harmful carcinogens in marijuana than in cigarettes by far. and yes, while smoking anything is harmful to your lungs, there is no documentation of anyone getting cancer from smoking pot. there are actually studies that prove the benefits of marijuana and lowering one's risk of cancer of any kind. cannabinoids in marijuana actually have been linked to effective treatment of cancers. so people who smoke pot AND smoke cigarettes will have a greater chance of cancer, yes, but not from solely smoking marijuana. so i suggest you, maryjforfools, should bang up on your research.

  4. alexandra says:
    Wed, 15th Dec 20107:11 pm 

    Actually, Jenny, you are wrong and the others are correct. I'm pretty sure the ratio of 1 to 100 is not accurate, but weed is much worse for your lungs. People claim it's better because it doesn't put artificial toxins in your lungs like cigs, but you know the resin in your bowl when you don't ever clean it? Yeah, THAT'S what is in your lungs when you're smoking weed. Regarding your anti-cancer research, that only refers to a natural agent in weed, not all of it together. The other parts are what bad for you, including but not limited to what makes you high.
    I hate that it is the current movement to say that weed is not harmful. It's considered a drug for a reason, and no it isn't because of the government/haters/conservatives/parents/blahblahblahh. It damages your body, and most specifically your brain, like any other harmful drug.
    And to the author—as far as saying there are much worse things kids could be doing, that's like saying it's better to be hit by a car than a truck. Not entirely logical, there…

  5. Emily says:
    Wed, 15th Dec 20107:38 pm 

    marijuana is definitely not as safe as a lot of adolescents are led to believe.
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2007/jul/31/dru…
    this article provides a pretty good perspective on the dangers of smoking marijuana, where as sites like this one: http://stason.org/TULARC/health/hemp-marijuana/35… have a pretty clear bias… pro-marijuana-legalization sites provide a lot of "facts" that are not proven.

  6. Katie says:
    Wed, 15th Dec 201011:13 pm 

    they have not yet proven that mary jane has any connection to cancer. look it up yourself.

  7. jenny says:
    Thu, 16th Dec 201012:34 am 

    Actually, Alexandra, they are definitely wrong and I know I'm right. Sure, smoking anything at an elevated temperature will most definitely do some kind of damage to your lungs. That is why there are alternate ways of smoking marijuana that are much more beneficial to your lungs, such as using a vaporizer, which will heat the marijuana to a specific level that only releases the THC without burning the plant.

    So yeah, if you're smoking it from a bong, bowl, blunt, joint or whatever it is that simply burns the plant without any filter, yes there's going to some damage. But saying that weed is a drug that damages your brain? ..Now that is just ignorant and an unfounded misconception based on the fact that you were taught by our government and schools that weed is a "gateway drug" and one will lose brain cells and all types of ridiculous claims made to scare us.

    Alexandra, you do consider marijuana to be a harmful drug BECAUSE of the government/haters/conservatives/parents/blablahblahh. Do you even know WHY weed has the bad rep it does today? It's because of a single man named Harry Anslinger. Look him up. He facilitated this whole hysteria over weed for his own corrupt intentions. HE was the one who said "marijuana is the certain first step on the road to heroin addiction," which only caused fueled the negative misconceptions of marijuana. There is more to it and the government history; you really should read up on it.

    Sorry for the length, but I get quite irrate over the fact that so many peopel are so ignorant about marijuana. Now excuse me while I go rip this bowl.

  8. alexandra says:
    Thu, 16th Dec 20101:14 am 

    Ignorant reply.
    I don't consider weed dangerous because "it's a gateway drug", I consider weed dangerous because it's dangerous.
    It's nothing that the big bad government has pushed on me—it's personal experience.
    And I don't really care to argue with you because all of you legalizers obviously can't look at the other side of the argument at all, ever. Some people's immaturity astounds me.
    Kbyyee.

  9. Rai says:
    Thu, 16th Dec 20102:47 am 

    Marijuana has been proven to, if not cause, then 'tip' people already genetically vulnerable towards mental abnormality and disorders such as paranoid schizophrenia and psychosis due to the way it interacts with neurotransmitters and chemicals within the brain, such as cutting reception to corticolimbic regions.

  10. stonerchick says:
    Thu, 16th Dec 20103:16 am 

    Medical research journals are generally more accurate than articles and propaganda. I wrote a seven-page research paper on marijuana, and no, it's really not that bad for you. Yes, it may be bad for your lungs and could *possibly* cause someone who is already at risk for a mental disorder to develop one, but it is not physically addictive, can prevent head and neck cancers, and eases the side effects of chemo, AIDs, and even autism. There are much worse things that people could be doing. Get your facts straight before typing, babyboos :)

  11. maryjforfools says:
    Thu, 16th Dec 20103:58 pm 

    Either way, I'm kind of embarassed that CC would publish such a poorly researched/balanced article. I guess this is why blogs are not the future of journalism. Even the best Op-Ed columnists know they have to present both sides with ACCURATE, CLEAR, AND DETAILED information…

  12. Big Meech says:
    Fri, 17th Dec 20105:40 am 

    vaporizers! and also watch The Union: The Business Behind Getting High. oh and read about reefer madness.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reefer_Madness
    http://www.drugpolicy.org/about/position/race_pap…
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HLzmH9VB6A

    safe toking :)

  13. whereyougetfacts says:
    Fri, 17th Dec 201011:36 am 

    fyi you still smell gross and you're still breathing in smoke. also marijuana today is much different than it was in the 60's and can be laced with other drugs. it happened to someone i went to school with..was not a good situation.

  14. i<3mj says:
    Fri, 17th Dec 20103:34 pm 

    uh febreze? perfume? or you wear a sweatshirt over your clothes then take it off? i don't know there's a lot of things you can do about the smell and from my experience, noone ever notices it. and did you not hear of a thing called a "vaporizer"? also marijuana is not different from the 60s if you look it up. it may possibly be stronger but that just means the user will smoke less to get as high. and it's unfortunate what happened to that person who went to your school, but it is all the more reason for legalization. buying it legally means you know where your product is coming from and that it will not be laced with any sort of other unwanted drugs. plus, people won't have to deal with buying from really sketchy dealers like that person at your school did, furthermore cutting off money to drug cartels and putting money back into america through taxes. SO BAM put that in your bong and toke it!

  15. Katherine says:
    Mon, 20th Dec 20103:16 pm 

    I actually have experience of this, depression is heriditary on both sides of my family, a relation tried marijuana twice, and fell into depression and tried to kill themselves repeatedly. Another relation did it a lot and was a complete stress to be around, never remembering where anything was, accusing me of spying on them & generally being really aggressive. Just because it's a plant doesn't mean it's not harmful. Hemlock is also a plant. It's ridiculous that people who take it because they think it relaxes them know that it has a so called positive effect on them but completely ignore the negatives. BTW I thumbed up your comment although it's still a negative caused by the people sticking their fingers in their ears and going la la la.

  16. Alex says:
    Mon, 20th Dec 20105:08 pm 

    it doesn't matter who is right and who is wrong and whether its bad for you or not, or even illegal. the article was giving mostly facts, how yes, 1 in 3 high schoolers smokes or has smoked pot, and yes, it is a hell of a lot better than doing some other drugs. yeah its still a drug and still harmful, but it's your choice whether to smoke it or not. whatever. it's pot, it's everywhere, and people need to get over it. do it or don't do it, but let other people make their own decisions.

  17. Diary Young Asshole says:
    Mon, 20th Dec 20105:15 pm 

    Just means its going to be a lot of cool laid back Snoop Dogg cool people running around the US…thats all…:)

    Soulja Boy Enters Guinness Book of World Records; Least Albums Sold First Week by Major Label Artist…Ever (Details) http://creambmp.com/SouljaBoy

  18. AlissaLee says:
    Mon, 20th Dec 20105:34 pm 

    Research does not "prove," anything. It may strongly support a hypothesis, but people in the sciences never use the word "prove." :) Just saying.

    That's the thing that bothered me most about this article.

  19. AlissaLee says:
    Mon, 20th Dec 20105:41 pm 

    Research does not "prove," anything. It may strongly support a hypothesis, but people in the sciences never use the word "prove." :) Just saying.

  20. criolle johnny says:
    Mon, 20th Dec 20108:15 pm 

    You are deliberately sucking smoke into your lungs. You were stupid from the beginning whether you were smoking one weed or the other.
    You are sucking smoke into your lungs! Who's idea was this? Smoke and lung tissue are a bad combination. SMOKE in the LUNGS is a bad idea! What in the hell are you thinking?
    You do it to impair your thinking process or to impair your breathing process. Again I have to ask what in the hell you are thinking. There is no good result from deliberately making oneself less capable of thinking or less capable of breathing.
    What in the hell are you thinking?
    I have never understood.

  21. MJqueen says:
    Tue, 21st Dec 20103:00 am 

    hahahahah wow alexandra is so dumb and jenny is right.

    I literally laughed out loud when I saw this: "All you "legalizers" (oh man…. those crazy legalizers….) obviously can't look at the other side of the argument at all, ever."

    Weed is not harmful, it just mellows people out and takes away pain, and if you have a problem with people doing that in the privacy of their own homes, you have serious issues. People are going to do what they want despite what you think is right.

    So stop lying and telling people weed is dangerous, because its not and everyone deserves to know how awesome it is. Chill out and stop judging people and trying to enforce your personal morals on everyone, cause no one gives a shit.

  22. MJqueen says:
    Tue, 21st Dec 20103:04 am 

    soooo right on. let's blaze

  23. MJqueen says:
    Tue, 21st Dec 20103:10 am 

    Sorry for your relatives, because that's random and I've never heard of anything like that happening before, but it actually does chill you out and relax you. There are no negatives for me. It relaxes me at the end of a long day and is the only thing that helps my horrible cramps. If he was already depressed btw, you shouldn't just blame weed because you don't know if that was the reason behind it. People get prescribed weed for depression, and it makes me feel less sad too. Different people react in different ways. People are going to do what they want despite what you think is right, so just do us all a favor and chill outtt

  24. GMM says:
    Tue, 21st Dec 20105:33 am 

    Coming from a country with a booze culture (UK) my first reaction to this is pretty much that if that many US highschoolers are smoking weed, it's a little bit tragic. No offence, but stoners are incredibly boring. Also, as an illegal drug, it's not only the effects of the weed you should worry about; I know a guy who bought weed cut with a hallucinogen by accident and ended up hallucinating and throwing up. There is no quality control on illegal drugs, why would you put something in your body if you don't know for sure what is in it?

  25. Amanda says:
    Tue, 21st Dec 20102:55 pm 

    Well, the writer attends Bridgewater State so I'm not surprised at how shitty this article is.

  26. KNC says:
    Tue, 21st Dec 20104:19 pm 

    Alright, this is ridiculous. Pot does not cause kids to be less successful, and the binge drinking that is routine in college and university is way more dangerous and unhealthy than an occasional joint. I am what you could consider a long term marijuana user, having started smoking it in grade 9. Guess what! I am currently in my 3rd year of an honors program that only accepts 20 students each year at one of the top universities in Canada. My memory is fine, and is actually much better than many of my non pot smoking friends. I can go weeks or months without using pot, do not experience any "withdrawal" type symptoms. Noone, I repeat NOONE, has ever died as a direct result of smoking pot. Ever. How many people die from drinking, or cigarettes? Thousands every single year. This is a case of propoganda: pot makes people uncomfortable because schools and parents and the government have told us that it is dangerous and bad, not because it has proven to be so.

  27. Alex says:
    Thu, 23rd Dec 20101:21 am 

    MARIJUANA MYTHS
    1.Marijuana is sooooo addictive right???
    in a list of the most addictive substances….marijuana is less addictive than nicotine, alcohol, and even caffiene!!!
    2. Marijuana causes memory loss
    Subjects under the influence of marijuana have no trouble remembering things they learned previously. They do display diminished capacity to learn and recall new information. This diminishment only lasts for the duration of the intoxication. There is no convincing evidence that heavy long-term marijuana use permanently impairs memory or other cognitive functions.
    3. Marijuana kills brain cells
    The experiment In 1974 reported from Dr. Heath had concluded that Rhesus monkeys, smoking the equivalent of only 30 joints a day, began to atrophy and die after 90 days…First of all, 30 joints a day?? No one smokes that much! Thennnnn we discover the truth 5 years later.

    The Heath “Voodoo” Research methodology involved strapping Rhesus monkeys into a chair and pumping them with equivalent of 63 Colombian strength joints in “five minutes, through gas masks,” losing no smoke. Heath had administered 63 joints in five minutes over just three months instead of administering 30 joints per day over a one-year period as he had first reported. Heath did this, it turned out, in order to avoid having to pay an assistant’s wages every day for a full year.

    The monkeys were suffocating! Three to five minutes of oxygen deprivation causes brain damage btw—“dead brain cells.” (Red Cross Lifesaving and Water Safety Manual)

    Alsooo, new studies have shown that when combining binge drinking (three or more drinks in an hour) and smoking pot, patients actually lose less brain cells than if they just binge drank. hmmmm interesting

    i could honestly go on for hours…
    no case of cancer has ever been attributed to only marijuana
    no death has ever been attributed to only marijuana
    while alcohol can cause violent tendencies, marijuana does the exact opposite
    shall i continue???

    I'm in the Honors program at my college and made the Dean's list this semester…I smoke every day

  28. Ashleigh says:
    Thu, 23rd Dec 20104:18 am 

    It's not THAT much better than cigarettes. My sister was addicted to marijuana (in rehab and all; yeah, you can get addicted to pot) and she said that it was the hardest thing she ever had to get off of, including cigarettes.

    I am for the legalization of marijuana, as I'm not for it but don't think it should be a crime, but I think the attitude of "Well, at least it's better than cigarettes" is a really ignorant one to take.

    And gross, pot TOTALLY smells worse than cigarettes! ;)

  29. lindsay says:
    Sat, 25th Dec 201012:44 am 

    SMOKE WEED ERRYDAY

  30. SweetHoney says:
    Sun, 26th Dec 20101:32 pm 

    me too!

  31. mahjong says:
    Tue, 28th Dec 20107:50 am 

    This reduction only lasts for the duration of intoxication. There is no convincing evidence that marijuana use long-term results in a permanent degradation of memory or other cognitive functions.

  32. loveeeeMJ says:
    Fri, 31st Dec 201010:23 am 

    helll yea. your awesome. lets blaze :)

  33. sublime says:
    Fri, 31st Dec 201010:25 am 

    lol it smells worse than cigarettes? ew ur crazy

  34. sublime says:
    Fri, 31st Dec 201010:26 am 

    hahahahah :) true dat

  35. sublime says:
    Fri, 31st Dec 201010:35 am 

    damn your such a party pooper/ majorrrr buzzkill. work on that.

  36. meli says:
    Mon, 3rd Jan 20118:45 pm 

    This article started out fine, but then I came upon the Phish and bong bashing part. The music a person listens to and they way they chose to smoke weed has nothing to do with their ability to function and excel in a respectable four-year university. Any person that actually smokes marijuana knows that a bong or vaporizer is less harmful to the lungs than a blunt, joint, or GASP cigarette. Do your research and learn that there are different types of smokers. Smoking marijuana doesn't make you a complete fool nor does it cause you to fail at life-in some instances it allows people with anxiety issues to not have to take prescription drugs which have a higher rate of addiction and harmful side effects as well.

  37. tangerine says:
    Mon, 7th Mar 20114:48 pm 

    you can get addicted to anything…sex, food, shopping, etc. should those things be made illegal because a few weak people start relying on it because of emotional issues?

    and cigarettes reek. the smell alone gives me a headache, probably due to the chemicals. pot is all natural and i think it smells goooood.

  38. tangerine says:
    Mon, 7th Mar 20114:50 pm 

    don't generalize "stoners" with a stereotype.

    and people don't know for sure what's in prescription drugs but they put those in their bodies all the time.

  39. tangerine says:
    Mon, 7th Mar 20114:52 pm 

    smoking does not make one less capable of thinking. it actually opens your mind to other ways of thinking.

    and you can ingest it through the stomach or with a vaporizer for a less harmful effect.

  40. tangerine says:
    Mon, 7th Mar 20114:54 pm 

    there's no research that directly links mary j to cancer. new research actually shows that it slows/prevents some forms of cancer.

  41. tangerine says:
    Mon, 7th Mar 20114:57 pm 

    that was stupid, go open a book and learn.

  42. go here says:
    Thu, 3rd Jan 201312:24 am 

    Thank God I can say I'm a year sober! I almost died. They (doctors) said if my friends hadn't got me to the hospital when they did…I'd have died within the hour. I went to 3 stay in treatments, that didn't stop me. It took that 1 month in the hospital. I'm not looking back now. Don't even "test" if you can TRY drinking a bit less, you8 really don't have to have it to exist.

  43. karilie says:
    Wed, 9th Jan 201312:56 pm 

    People take because of stress ,ego and they want to try it. So friend say try –are you with me or not.What do you do.? http://www.nonfaithbased-drugrehab.org/

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