Suetaz

Why More Kids Smoke Marijuana Than Cigarettes

By Steve Fox | AlterNet | June 16, 2004.

If the idea is to stop teen substance use, the approach we've used with tobacco works better than the approach we've taken with marijuana.

The biennial Youth Risk Behavior Survey, released May 21 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, contained a bombshell:

More U.S. teens are now smoking marijuana than smoke cigarettes.

That's right. Among high school students, current use -- defined as use within the last 30 days -- is now higher for marijuana than for cigarettes. According to the CDC, 21.9 percent of teens reported smoking cigarettes within the last month, while 22.4 percent smoked marijuana.

There is a lesson here, but one that policymakers won't want to hear: If the idea is to stop teen substance use, the approach we've used with tobacco works better than the approach we've taken with marijuana. That means regulation of adult use, rather than prohibition.

That may seem hard to believe, but the long-term trends are telling. In the decade from 1993 to 2003, the percentage of teens reporting current cigarette use dropped by nearly one third, from 30.5 percent to 21.9 percent. Other smoking indicators dropped dramatically, too. For example, the proportion that had smoked a full cigarette by age 13 fell from 26.9 percent to 18.3 percent.

For marijuana, despite a marginal, statistically insignificant decrease last year, the long-term trend has been heading in the opposite direction. Past-month marijuana use has risen nearly five percentage points since 1993, when it was just 17.7 percent. Even more alarming, the number of kids smoking marijuana before age 13 went up from 6.9 percent in 1993 to 9.9 percent last year.

Though the exact numbers vary, other youth surveys document the same trend. The latest federally-funded Monitoring the Future survey, for example, found current marijuana use higher than cigarette use among 10th graders but still a bit lower among eighth and 12th graders -- again with marijuana use well up from a decade ago and tobacco use down.

Why is teen cigarette smoking dropping so impressively, while marijuana use remains essentially stuck at high levels?

Two words: "We Card."

If you've been in just about any store that sells cigarettes in the last few years, you've seen the signs: "Under 18, No Tobacco. We Card." The bright red and yellow placards are impossible to miss. The effort, begun in 1995, has become almost ubiquitous.

While the We Card campaign is a voluntary effort, it was the result of public and legal pressure. Americans made it clear we don't like cigarettes being sold to kids, and legislators in many states responded with tough laws. Merchants who sell cigarettes to youths under 18 can face stiff fines and, in many jurisdictions, can lose their license to sell tobacco.

It has worked -- not perfectly, but to a substantial degree -- as can be seen from a new question the CDC added to its survey in 2001: Do you usually get your cigarettes by buying them in a store or gas station? For kids under 18, this figure dropped sharply, from 8.6 percent in 2001 to 6.2 percent in 2003.

Under a policy of regulation, society has control over tobacco retailers. We can fine them, suspend their business licenses, or even put them out of business if they don't follow the rules. So when America got serious about curbing tobacco sales to minors, they got the message.

We have no such control of marijuana dealers, who are unlicensed and completely unregulated. Efforts to stamp them out haven't even put a minor crimp in marijuana's availability: For two and a half decades running, between 82 and 90 percent of teens have told the Monitoring the Future survey that marijuana is "easy to get."

Today, precisely zero marijuana sellers have "We Card" signs by the cash register. We can change that by ending the failed policy of marijuana prohibition for adults, and replacing it with the sort of responsible regulation that has proven effective with tobacco.

Steve Fox, a father of two, is director of government relations for the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C.

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Greenbud

Cigarettes and tobacco are legal and regulated in the US, therefore, research on the harmful effects of tars and nicotine on the body are not stifled by biased government-sponsored propaganda. It is based on undeniable facts. Everyone understands that smoking cigarettes causes cancer, heart and lung disease. It's obvious that Americans, young and old alike, are intelligent enough to figure out for themselves that tobacco use is far more harmful than smoking pot.

On the other hand, most government propaganda about marijuana is based on half-truths, assumptions and pseudoscience. Kids know when they are being lied to. They experiment with pot and confirm their suspicions that the information fed to them by DARE and other authority figures is false, if not outright lies. Research coming in within the past few years disproves a lot of the government's claims (sterility, insanity, aggression, brain damage, cancer, etc).

Kids are not as dumb and naive as the government would like us to think. When given factual, common-sense information about drugs, kids are less likely to abuse them. We've waged a fact-based campaign against tobacco and the numbers here show the decline of kids using it. Obviously, the truth works.

Legalize marijuana and regulate it. Provide fact-based education to schools about marijuana and drug use in general. I guarantee if our country and our government started treating marijuana like they do tobacco, we will see a decline in the number of kids using it, the same as we've seen with cigarettes. It obviously worked for the Dutch, but our government is too blinded by anti-marijuana fanaticism to see it.

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"I believe in the near future, the government will use anti-drug hysteria to set up a police state."
-author William S. Burroughs, 1947

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solutions

That is an excellent article. I'm glad the MPP realizes the opportunity regulation has for actually influencing substance use, or if you will - abuse. Decriminalization of cannabis only takes the rough edges off a failed policy, well the "war on drugs" is not even a policy at all, a perversion of reason at best. Legalizing medical marijuana is what it is, for medical use only. What about the millions of casual potsmokers?

People often talk about how Dutch teens use less pot. Well yeah, according to the latest numbers, but the Dutch system is not perfect. It is perfectly workable, don't get me wrong, compared to the alternatives, but there are flaws. The international political climate (eg. USA, UN, France, Sweden) did not allow full regulation of the business. The policy now is to wait for the rest of the world to catch on. Any change in the Dutch policy is not to be expected untill a timely change in American politics takes place. Those guys now running in the States, well some of them got it, but I have some doubts about the big two. Europe is undeniably moving away from simple prohibition as a policy - watch out for the new EU drugs strategy that is expected in the next half year - a string of countries decrimmed yet no government has really tackled the distribution question.

Regulated legalization would be extremely easy, with a lot of options. An age check and strict regulations for entrepeneurs is basically all that is needed. Growers and sellers can be licensed by local authorities - the part of governance that has to deal with the policy and drug users. If it is a business - wait it already is, and what a business, phew - if it is a legitimate business the entrepeneur and his (m/f) business can be easily checked, and will be very careful not to lose his license. A cannabar can be a counter for proper education on drugs, finally start sending the right message to America, cannabis and hard drugs are not the same. Legalization and regulation of cannabis is not a slippery slope, is the only way to prevent slipping even further.

It really is such a no-brainer, once you think about it. Then again I'm stoned, maybe that makes me see the simple things No really, is there another way? Gotta go, Croatia and France are playing a GREAT game, peace

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discussing things as they are set to be
Said one to the other, now listen you two
there's a strange rumor that can't be true
they say man was descended from our noble race
but the very idea is a big disgrace
no monkey ever deserted his wife
or her baby to ruin their lives.
Damian Marley - Educated Fools

Zilos

I smoked cigs for a couple years up till I decided to quit in Febuary cause I figured it just wasn't worth the health risks, But, I still proudly smoke marijuana, and I ain't quiting any time soon

Cigerettes

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Suetaz

The Dutch have already been waiting over 30 years for the rest of the world to 'catch up', that doesn't sound very hopeful. The US has been very good at ignoring the positive example that the Dutch have been setting for so long.

I agree with this to a certain point. The tobacco approach works better than lying to teens and causing distrust in them, but prohibiting them from using marijuana or tobacco is still prohibition, which creates a black market for teens. I see a lot of teens smoking both marijuana and tobacco, both of which are illegal for teens, but are still easy enough to get. Like Greenbud said, teens are smart enough to figure out for themselves that smoking cigarettes is bad for you. When they try marijuana and find out it's not as bad as what DARE said it was, they will assume all warnings are lies regarding marijuana. I think we need to stop prohibiting teens and teach them the truth and then let them make their own decisions.

bera

huh...i start out with cigs...from the early age of 12....and been smoking till then until i fell in love in maryj...which i was 15 at the time...so i kind of quit smoking cigs...and only smoke maryj since then...and quiting never entered my mind...as you can not get high on tobacco so why the hell you have to smoke it ...but i still use a little amout of tobbacco...for rolling purpose...

yeah...we choose what we want to smoke, eat etc...why should we do what they tell us what to do...

good for them...they know what good for them...

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Smoke Weed On Daily Basis

StewScum

I like having a cigarette after a bowl i smoke, but thats me. I should be alowed to do both those things legaly, but i am limited to the one that hurts me the most. I think alot of tabbacco companies are worried that weed would decline their sales, maybe that might be true, but i don't think you'll even be able to get people to stop smoking tobacco.

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Life is like a pot of stew, if you don't stir it up every once and a while, all the scum rises to the top -Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins.