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Report: Teens Smoking More Pot Than Cigarettes

Updated: Tuesday, 14 Dec 2010, 1:34 PM EST
Published : Tuesday, 14 Dec 2010, 1:33 PM EST

(NewsCore) - After years of decline, marijuana use among U.S. teens is again growing and is now outpacing cigarette smoking, according to a report released Tuesday by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).

In addition, the number of high school seniors who admitted they are daily pot smokers hit 6.1 percent, the highest number reported in nearly 30 years.

On the one hand, NIDA called the news a victory for public health campaigns that are aimed at preventing teens from picking up cigarette smoking. At the same time, NIDA said the increase in marijuana use is likely to continue.

The survey also looked at youngsters’ attitudes toward drug use. Both 8th and 10th graders reported “soft” attitudes about pot, which suggested to researchers that marijuana use is likely to climb among high schoolers in the years to come.

Dr. Nora Volkow, director of NIDA, said the rise in daily use of marijuana is most concerning because frequent use puts teens at higher risk of dependency but also is more damaging, inhibiting learning and memory function in brains that are still developing.

Volkow blamed the rise in use and generally more favorable attitudes toward marijuana on medical marijuana, which she believes leads youngsters to believe it is not dangerous.

Recreational use of the opioid OxyContin remained stable compared with 2009, as did recreational use of drugs prescribed for attention deficit disorder and amphetamines.

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