NCJ Number
169242
Date Published
1998
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This chapter seeks to refute claims of a youth marijuana crisis.
Abstract
The article presents six statements descriptive of an alleged adolescent marijuana epidemic and evidence suggesting that the claims are misleading and inaccurate. According to data from the Monitoring the Future study at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research; the National Household Survey; the National Institute on Drug Abuse; and other sources: (1) Current use rates are less than 2 percent higher than they were as recently as 1990; (2) Lifetime use of marijuana among high school seniors has remained predominantly the same for years; (3) There are no figures from the 1970s and 1980s against which to compare today's claim that users are starting younger than ever before; (4) The majority of marijuana users do not become dependent on cannabis or move on to other illegal drugs; (5) Current average marijuana potency is essentially the same as samples assayed during the middle and late 1970s; and (6) Moderate marijuana use is relatively harmless and poses far less cost to society than do either cigarettes or alcohol.