Survey: Marijuana use up in American high schools

By Staff Writer

The 2010 Monitoring the Future Survey reveals that daily marijuana use among teenagers has increased in all grade levels.

According to the survey, which was conducted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), approximately 6 percent of high school seniors smoke marijuana every day, while 3.3 percent of 10th-graders and 1.2 percent of eighth-graders also use the drug on a daily basis. Each percentage was higher than in the 2009 survey.

Furthermore, about 21 percent of 12th-graders said they had smoked marijuana in the past 30 days. The survey revealed a perception that many problem teens believe that cannabis is not harmful. Less than half of the seniors surveyed - 47 percent - said that marijuana is not harmful, while only 57 percent of 10th-graders thought pot was dangerous to smoke on a regular basis.

Nora Volkow, the director of NIDA, said that her group would like to analyze how the debate over medical marijuana and decriminalization is affecting teens. She added that parents and guardians must find better ways to talk to their children about the short-term and long-term effects of marijuana use.

Adolescents who smoke pot may benefit from wilderness therapy, which is designed to help problem teens develop positive behaviors.