Health Background

Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs: Marijuana

The illicit drug most widely used by young people is marijuana. Among kids who use drugs, approximately 60 percent use only marijuana. It's also easy to get: More than 88 percent of 12th graders say marijuana is "fairly" or "very" easy to obtain. In 2002, over 60 percent of kids aged 12 to 17 who'd used marijuana during the past year got their most recent "hit" for free or by sharing someone else's. And according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, among those who got marijuana free or shared it, African Americans (18 percent) were more likely than whites (9 percent) or Hispanics (7 percent) to have gotten it from a relative or family member.

Most teenagers believe that marijuana is relatively harmless. In the 2002 Monitoring the Future study, fewer than one-third (30 percent) of 12th graders believed that occasional marijuana use is harmful and nearly 40 percent associated marijuana with popularity.

The marijuana available today is more potent than what was available 30 years ago. The levels of THC (the active ingredient in marijuana) rose from under one percent in the mid-1970's to more than seven percent in 2002.

• Prolonged use of marijuana can lead to some of the same changes in the brain as cocaine, heroin, and alcohol.
• Heavy marijuana use impairs the ability to concentrate and retain information.
• Marijuana can increase anxiety, panic attacks, and depression.
• Smoking marijuana causes many of the same respiratory complications, such as coughing, frequent chest colds, and increased risk for lung infection, as smoking tobacco.
• Smoking marijuana delivers three to five times more tar and carbon monoxide to the lungs as smoking tobacco, primarily due to the smoking method (i.e., longer durations of inhalation with marijuana).
• Regular users of marijuana experienced withdrawal symptoms when abstaining from marijuana for three days, including drug cravings, decreased appetite, sleep difficulties, weight loss, and irritability.
• More teens enter drug treatment for marijuana than for all other illicit drugs combined.
• According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's (SAMHSA) Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), marijuana is the most frequently reported drug in emergency department (ED) visits related to drug abuse in kids age 12 to 19. Marijuana-related ED visits have been increasing much faster than overall drug-related visits.
• Adolescents who use marijuana weekly are nearly four times more likely to engage in violence than those who don't.
• Teens who've used marijuana are four times more likely to have been pregnant or to have gotten someone pregnant than teens who've never smoked pot, according to the National Center for Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.

• Parental disapproval: In 2001, only 5.5 percent of youth ages 12-17 who said their parents would strongly disapprove if they tried marijuana once or twice had actually used the drug during the previous month, compared with 30.2 percent of youth who said their parents would only somewhat disapprove or neither approve nor disapprove of marijuana use.
• Positive school experiences: Teens who enjoy going to school, who feel that their assigned schoolwork is meaningful, or who feel that things learned in school are going to be important later in life, are less likely to use alcohol or other drugs.
• Religious beliefs: Teens with higher levels of religious belief are less likely to use cigarettes, alcohol, or other drugs.
• School anti-alcohol/drug messages: Rates of alcohol and drug use during the past year were lower for youths who'd seen or heard drug or alcohol prevention messages at school, compared to kids who hadn't seen such messages. [NOTE: alcohol IS an illicit drug for youths. It's against the law to buy and use it.]