The New York Times (12/18, Richtel) reports, “Teenagers are drinking less alcohol, smoking fewer cigarettes and trying fewer hard drugs, new federal survey data” indicate, but “these public health gains have been offset by a sharp increase in vaping of marijuana and nicotine.” The data come from the Monitoring the Future survey, “a closely watched annual study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, or NIDA, of eighth, 10th and 12th graders.”
USA Today (12/18, O’Donnell) reports that the data “showed a ‘significant’ increase in the number of 8th through 12th grade students vaping marijuana, and a similarly high jump in daily cannabis use by 8th and 10th graders, while alcohol and opioid use continues to plummet.” In high school seniors, one in five “vaped marijuana in the last year and 14% vaped it in the last month, the National Institute on Drug Abuse reported.” Those “numbers doubled in the past two years.”
The Washington Post (12/17, Bernstein) reports that when students were asked by researchers “why they vaped, nearly 61 percent said to experiment, nearly 42 percent said they enjoyed the flavor, nearly 38 percent said to have a good time with friends and more than 37 percent said to relax or relieve tension.”
Related Links:
— “Teen Marijuana Vaping Soars, Displacing Other Habits, “Joe Gramigna, The New York Times , December 18, 2019