NIH Survey: More Teens Using Marijuana, Less See It As Harmful

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The latest national survey of drug use among U.S. teens shows that marijuana use has become more common, while its perception as a dangerous drug has not.

Published early this month, the 2013 Monitoring the Future Survey, conducted every year by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), found only 39.5% of high school seniors thought marijuana was harmful. Last year, 44.1% reported thinking of the substance as harmful, which was also in decline from previous years.

In a press statement, Lloyd Johnston, the principal investigator of this year’s survey, noted how drug perceptions can predict drug use, and suggested that both trends for marijuana may continue in the future.

“But more noteworthy is the fact that the proportion of adolescents seeing marijuana use as risky declined again sharply in all three grades. Perceived risk—namely the risk to the user that teenagers associate with a drug—has been a lead indicator of use, both for marijuana and other drugs, and it has continued its sharp decline in 2013 among teens. This could foretell further increases in use in the future.”

The survey also found 6.5% of high school seniors admitted using marijuana daily, reports TIME, up from 6% in 2003. Daily and annual use rates among other grades showed similarly slight or non-significant increases.

While government agencies like the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) have long voiced concerns about the negative impact of marijuana use among teens, rates of use have remained mostly stable over the past decade.

Interestingly, while marijuana has continued to be popular among high school students, both alcohol and cigarette use have declined.

Roughly 40% of high school seniors reported using alcohol in the past month, down from 53% in 1997, notes The New York Times. Daily cigarette use was reported by 8.5% of seniors and, for the first time in surveyed history, the percentage of seniors who reported smoking a cigarette in the past month also fell below 10%.

This year’s survey included responses from 41,675 students at 389 public and private schools across the U.S.

Source Leaf Science