Marijuana Use in High School

March 11th, 2011 | Add a Comment

Marijuana is known as the recreational drug just like alcohol, and has become very popular among the younger generations. It has been said that 40 percent of high school students have tried marijuana. A new study shows that students who were involved in extracurricular activities were less likely to smoke weed.

Among a survey of 9th through 12th graders from Connecticut, researchers found that while 40 percent of them have tried marijuana many also used it on a regular basis.

Teenagers in their junior and senior years were more likely to use the drug. Also teens who lived in a single parent household compared to teens who lived in a two-parent household, and averaged a B to C grades or lower were more likely to be the ones smoking marijuana.

The study has also shown that those kids who had jobs outside of school were more likely to have tried marijuana than those who were unemployed. Gender was very interesting to researchers as they wondered if that had anything to do with the use of marijuana. Researchers found that Caucasian girls were at the highest risk compared to other genders like American-Asian girls. Among boys they found that African-American males were at the highest risk for use.

Factors like depression and self-harming behaviors were associated with the use of marijuana. Risky behaviors like smoking cigarettes, fighting, drinking, and gambling also fall into the picture.

It is true that marijuana falls in the “benign right of passage” with adolescents many are getting concerned with such a high rate of use, since the teens brains are still developing.

Ty S. Shepis who is the lead author, and assistant professor of psychology at the Texas State University in San Marcos said “There is considerable evidence that it’s not just an innocent sort of thing. This is a period of strong change in the brain. We’re very concerned that marijuana alters the ways in which adolescent brains normally mature, particularly among heavy users.”