Teens who listen to marijuana-themed music more likely to smoke marijuana

And in other news, people who listen to polkas are twice as likely to drink beer, people who listen to Barry White are twice as likely not to be virgins, and people who attend Ozzfest are more likely to have tattoos.

(Univ. of Pittsburgh School of Medicine) PITTSBURGH, Dec. 22 – Teens who frequently listen to music that contains references to marijuana are more likely to use the drug than their counterparts with less exposure to such lyrics, according to a University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine study online now in the journal Addiction.

“Based on an analysis of survey data from 959 ninth-graders, we found that students who listen to music with the most references to marijuana are almost twice as likely to have used the drug than their peers whose musical tastes favor songs less focused on substance use, even after controlling for confounding factors,” said Brian Primack, M.D.,Ed.M., M.S., lead author of the study and assistant professor of medicine and pediatrics at Pitt’s School of Medicine.

“Interestingly, we also found that exposure to marijuana in music was not associated with other high-risk behaviors, such as excessive alcohol consumption. This suggests that there is a real link between the marijuana lyrics and marijuana use,” said Dr. Primack.

“Although it may be that heavy exposure to music about marijuana causes marijuana smoking, it may also be that those who smoke marijuana seek out music with lyrics related to marijuana,” noted Dr. Primack.

Do ya think, Doc?  Geez, chalk up another scientific victory for the Department of No Shit, Sherlock.  Of course teens who like pot like music that relates to what they like.  But to even insinuate that the music might be causing the pot smoking is an insult to our intelligence and the schools that gave you that alphabet soup of letters behind your name.  This isn’t 1969 where the teens are beholden to the music the dee-jays choose to play on a handful of terrestrial radio stations.  This is 2009 where the teens are listening to iPods and custom internet music streams like Pandora.  So if research shows that kids with Kottonmouth Kings in their favorites are more likely to be pot smokers, it’s not because they were force-fed that music and it caused them to seek out pot, it’s because they are pot smokers and they typed “marijuana” into a music search engine.

It’s not even that interesting to find that teens listening to pot-themed music aren’t more likely to drink a lot of booze or engage in other high-risk behaviors.  People who smoke pot often do so because it is the lowest risk mind-altering behavior they can engage in.

I wonder if we can get Dr. Primack a first class flight to Bavaria for Oktoberfest next year, so he can study whether or not teens who are exposed to German polkas with beer lyrics are more likely to drink beer?