Summer Is Peak Time for Teens to Try Drugs, Alcohol - Kids' Health - Everyday Health TUESDAY, July 3, 2012 (HealthDay News) - More teenagers start drinking and smoking cigarettes and marijuana in June and July than in any other months, U.S. health officials say. During each of those summer days, more than 11,000 teens on average use alcohol for the first time, 5,000 start smoking cigarettes and 4,500 try marijuana, according to the report, which was released Tuesday by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. "These months include periods when adolescents are on a break from school and have more idle time; they have fewer structured responsibilities and less adult supervision," said Dr. H. Westley Clark, director of the administration's Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. The findings are based on data from the administration's annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health for the years 2002 to 2012, which include interviews with more than 230,000 teens. December is the only other month in which substance-start rates approach June and July levels, according to the report. During the rest of the year, daily first-time alcohol use runs from 5,000 to 8,000 occurrences a day. Approximately 3,000 to 4,000 teens start smoking cigarettes, and about the same number try marijuana, according to the report. More teenagers start using hallucinogens and inhalants in the summer, the researchers found. There was, however, no such increase in those starting to use cocaine or abuse prescription drugs. Parents need to know that summertime is when their teens are more likely to start smoking, drinking and using drugs, Clark said. "Even though summer months are about free time, it is also about greater risk," he said. And parents need to talk to their children about these risks. Among other programs the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has a Smart Summer campaign that encourages parents to help prevent children from using these substances by setting boundaries, monitoring activities and being involved in their kids' lives, Clark said. Bruce Goldman, director of substance abuse services at Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, N.Y., said parents need to work with their kids to plan their time - to have some structured activity every day. "You should have an open dialogue with your children in terms of what they're doing and about alcohol and drugs," he said. "The longer you can delay adolescents from experimenting with alcohol and drugs, the better their chances of not developing problems later in life," Goldman said. "It's critical that parents be alert."
Didn't they just release a study showing that more kids smoke weed than cigarettes? CDC: More US teens smoke marijuana than cigarettes | Fox News A government survey shows more teens are now smoking pot than cigarettes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday that 23 percent of high school students said they recently smoked marijuana, while 18 percent said they had puffed cigarettes. The survey asked teens about a variety of risky behaviors. For decades, the number of teens who smoke has been on the decline. Marijuana use has fluctuated, and recently rose. At times, pot and cigarette smoking were about the same level, but last year marked the first time marijuana use was clearly greater. An earlier survey by the University of Michigan also found that pot smoking was higher. A Michigan expert said teens today apparently see marijuana as less dangerous than cigarettes.
I don't need a study to tell me that teenages are going to smoke more cannabis when it's sunnier and nicer outside.
Ok. I figured it's an article about weed and that people on grasscity might want to discuss it. No need for a smart ass comment. Unless I misinterpreted your intentions with the comment, in which case, I would apologize.
Coincidentally, these are also the peak months when GC becomes oddly over-active, and when threads focusing on concerns which could be cured by simple common sense, or a change in living accommodations, become more and more abundant... (We were all silly kids, at one time or another )
Oh, before I forget... I wonder why the fat cats who paid for these studies, would want those particular statistics to stay a bit below the radar?.... "Why yes, kids use more of EVERYthing when given too much alone time!... well, er, except of course for our financial backer's pharmaceuticals, and our own favorite pick-me-up. Nope, they don't touch that stuff.." 'No such increase', is a pretty strong statement to make.. or it is, if you don't read enough into the word 'such'. No one really likes it when their drug of choice is spoken against. Or perhaps by 'no such increase', they're just admitting that their use and abundance is worryingly high, all year round. Either way, it's risky business implying to a young parent, that the improper or recreational use of prescription meds is not a huge concern... because it really, really is, and it will kill their kids a heck of a lot faster than a bong hit.
They needed to waste money on a study to figure this out? They coulda gave me half and I would've saved them plenty of time
Not to mention, more than 2/3's of the country lives below the poverty level, meaning both parents have no choice but to work, of course kids are being left alone more. Couple that with our outrageous divorce rate, leaving the kids to stay at any given time with only one parent who has to work, the kids are going to be left alone more. So who's responsible for all this mess? The same kind of people who are behind the propaganda that is this article.
There is no such increase in the use of prescription medicine because the kids aren't at school to get caught with it. You can hear and smell people smoking weed in the summer. People at festivals doing and getting caught with everything in the book. But once that pill is out of the bottle there is no way to trace it, once it is up someones nose their is no way to prove it aside from an OD. But with weed, and other drugs you get waves of kids showing up to ER's because they couldn't handle their preverbial shit. Little Jimmy is no longer bringing his ADHD perscription to school to sell them to other students, so aside from outright getting caught in possesion, or an OD. Nobody in the community will know about it.