14 DAY TRIAL // This Friday, October 16, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report detailing the incidence of smoking and marijuana use among American teenagers. As it turns out, there's good news and then there's bad news.
For one thing, the agency says that, according to its investigation, US teens are giving up smoking, with both cigarettes and cigars dropping in popularity in recent years. They are, however, growing quite fond of marijuana instead.
Let's talk percentages
The agency's report documents smoking and marijuana use patterns among American teens between the years 1997 to 2013, with the data having been provided by Youth Risk Behavior Surveys involving students in grades 9 to 12.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that, during the study period, the number of teens smoking either cigarettes or cigars declined from 20.5% to 7.4%.
Marijuana use, on the other hand, was shown to have increased from 4.2% to 10.2%. Among teenagers also smoking cigarettes or cigars, marijuana use was found to have upped from 51.2% to 62.4%, the agency goes on to detail its findings.
“Increases in marijuana use among US youths might be attributable to decreasing perceptions of harm,” specialists with the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention explain these figures.
“More specifically, decriminalization and legalization of recreational marijuana use in some states with minimal concomitant public health messaging to address potential detrimental health effects of marijuana use might be contributing to this perception.”
“Further, legalization of medical marijuana use in 24 states, the District of Columbia, and Guam might increase perceptions of benefits of use, including that it is not harmful,” they add.
The agency is worried
Specialists with the agency argue that, while it is true that cigarettes and cigars get way more bad publicity than marijuana these days, the fact of the matter is there are health risks both to smoking and to using this drug.
For one thing, there is evidence that both smoking and using marijuana can result in addiction. Then, prolonged exposure to tobacco or to marijuana can impair cognitive function, which can in turn affect academic performance.
Then, experts warn that teenagers who take up both these habits will find it more difficult to ditch them than teens who only have one addiction to tackle, albeit to tobacco or to marijuana. Plainly put, it's best not to mix these vices.
Experts with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also caution that, in some cases, marijuana can be a gateway to other illicit substances, possibly more potent ones.
Furthermore, they say contaminants such as tar and other toxins are found not just in cigarette or cigar smoke, but can also be inhaled when smoking marijuana. What they mean is that, contrary to popular opinion, this drug isn't perfectly safe either.