The article I have read about teen smoking is called, “Marijuana
Use Growing Among Teenagers.” This article was published on December 14, 2011.
I read this article on New York Times, http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/14/marijuana-growing-in-popularity-among-teenagers.
The use of Marijuana is growing rapidly that at least one out of every 15 high
school students smokes marijuana on a daily basis. The age group is starting to
lower down to 10th graders smoking marijuana. People are seeing that
marijuana is getting more popular because of legalizing it for medical use.
Apparently, medical marijuana is legal in at least 16 states, like Colorado and
the District of Columbia. This is surprising to me because I didn’t think the
legalization of medical marijuana would be this soon. I thought they would
legalize it down the road, years later. Now they surveyed over 46,000 students
who have tried marijuana, the results were about 25 percent of 8th
graders, 10th graders, and 12th graders have reported
using marijuana. It is shocking that it goes down to 8th graders
that are using marijuana, they are barely still junior high kids that aren’t
even close to being able to smoke. There is another product that is also
becoming popular to teens. It is called synthetic marijuana which is a mixture
of herbs and chemicals, also known as “spice” or “K2.” The reason why this is
popular now is because it has been sold legally in convenience stores and gas stations.
Surprisingly, the percentages of using different types of drugs are going down,
such as cocaine, crack, and sedatives. I think that is good, but now they need
to work on lowering the use of marijuana.
