Survey: More kids smoke pot than tobacco

WASHINGTON — After nearly a decade in decline, marijuana is making a comeback among high school students, with growing use and softening attitudes about the risk of smoking pot starting in eighth grade. For the first time since 1981, the number of high school seniors reporting they had smoked marijuana in the past 30 days outnumbered those who said they smoked cigarettes.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse on Tuesday issued its 2010 Monitoring the Future survey, a yearly look at kids' drug and tobacco use patterns and attitudes. The remarkable crossover of the lines for marijuana use and tobacco use is a victory for public-health campaigns aimed at stamping out cigarette smoking among teens. But the federal office that tracks illicit drug use said it is driven by an upswing in youth marijuana use that is broad-based and likely to continue.

In 2010, 21.4 percent of high school seniors said they had smoked pot in the month before, and 19.2 percent reported they were cigarette smokers. Twelfth-graders who acknowledged the daily use of marijuana reached its highest point since the early 1980s, 6.1 percent, and the numbers of eighth- and 10th-graders smoking pot daily (1 and 3 percent, respectively) also rose over 2009.

Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the institute, called the rise in daily use of marijuana particularly troubling, given that more frequent use, and by teens whose brains are still developing, has been shown to be more damaging to learning and memory than less frequent use.

The Obama administration's drug czar, R. Gil Kerlikowske, said states' medical marijuana measures and public debate has made marijuana appear less dangerous to younger Americans.

Binge drinking is on the decline, with 23.2 percent of seniors reported having five or more drinks in a row, down from 25.2 percent. Use of Ecstasy, which had declined in the early 2000s, is on the increase again.

The survey, conducted by the University of Michigan, covered 46,482 students in 396 schools.

Additional material from The Associated Press.

source: http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/survey-more-kids-smoke-pot-than-tobacco-1122651.html?cxtype=rss_news