California teens’ marijuana use steady, but prescription drug abuse skyrocketing

The newly released biennial Attorney General’s Survey of Student Drug Use in California shows that marijuana use among 7th, 9th and 11th graders remained stable during 2007-8, but reports an “alarming rate” of prescription drug abuse.

“The survey confirms that California’s medical marijuana law has had no adverse impact on youth marijuana use,” comments California NORML coordinator Dale Gieringer. “At the same time, it shows that youth prescription drug use has been seriously underestimated in the past.”

Marijuana use been declining to stable ever since passage of California’s medical marijuana law in 1996. For a graph, see http://www.canorml.org/prop/studentMJuse.html. According to the latest report, “Since 2003, use in the past six months has remained stable at 7% in 7th grade, 20% in 9th and 31% in 11th grade.”

“The most significant but disturbing overall finding of the 12th biennial survey is – because of underassessment of recreational use of prescription and over-the-counter drugs – we have previously underestimated actual levels of youth substance use. New data shows that 37 percent of 9th and 50 percent of 11th graders used either an illicit/illegal drug or a diverted prescription drug to get high at least once in their lifetime. Taking this into consideration, total lifetime use of alcohol and other drugs (AOD) use is estimated at 52 percent and 69 percent respectively. Including use of cold/cough medicines to get high, lifetime AOD 9th-grade use rises to 60 percent and 11th-grade use to 74 percent.”

Weird, isn’t it, that they keep telling us that medical marijuana will “send the wrong message to the children”, yet teen use of marijuana remains steady or declines in all the states that have medical marijuana.  Meanwhile, we have pharmaceutical advertising on television and radio 24/7 sending messages about prescription drugs, and their abuse rates skyrocket.

A great deal of this increase, I believe, is due to random drug testing of students.  Everybody knows that pot, out of any substance you can take for intoxication, is the one that remains detectable for the longest period of time.  Everybody knows that if you are caught with even the residue of marijuana, you’re going to jail, losing your scholarships, maybe your job, and altering your life forever.

But if you pop a few of the pills you find in mom and dad’s medicine cabinet, you won’t be tested for it, you’ll get a lot higher, it’s harder to find (no smell) and conceal, and even if you are caught, you still get student aid and keep your job.  What teenager seeking a thrill wouldn’t choose the pills over pot?  Once again, prohibition maximizes the harm.