Tel-Chai Nation

A new report being released by the US government warns of the hazards teenagers can face:

WASHINGTON - Depression, teens and marijuana are a dangerous mix that can lead to dependency, mental illness or suicidal thoughts, according to a White House report being released Friday.

A teen who has been depressed at some point in the past year is more than twice as likely to have used marijuana as teens who have not reported being depressed — 25 percent compared with 12 percent, said the report by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

"Marijuana is a more consequential substance of abuse than our culture has treated it in the last 20 years," said John Walters, director of the office. "This is not just youthful experimentation that they'll get over as we used to think in the past."

Smoking marijuana can lead to more serious problems, Walters said in an interview.

For example, using marijuana increases the risk of developing mental disorders by 40 percent, the report said. And teens who smoke pot at least once a month over a yearlong period are three times more likely to have suicidal thoughts than nonusers, it said.

The report also cited research that showed that teens who smoke marijuana when feeling depressed were more than twice as likely as their peers to abuse or become addicted to pot — 8 percent compared with 3 percent.

Experts who have worked with children say there's nothing harmless about marijuana.

"I've seen many, many kids' lives negatively impacted and taken off track because of marijuana," said Elizabeth Stanley-Salazar, director of adolescent services for Phoenix House treatment centers in California. "It's somewhat Russian roulette. There are so many factors, emotional, psychological, biological. You can't predict the experimentation and how it will impact a kid."

The drug control policy office analyzed about a dozen studies looking at marijuana use, including research by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Overall, marijuana use among teens has decreased 25 percent since 2001, down to about 2.3 million kids who used pot at least once a month, the drug control office said.

While the drop is encouraging, Walters appealed to parents to recognize signs of possible drug use and depression.

"It's not something you look the other way about when your teen starts appearing careless about their grooming, withdrawing from the family, losing interest in daily activities," Walters said. "Find out what's wrong."

Years ago, I knew an extremely racist 19-year old on a message board, supposedly from Perth, Australia, who said that he smoked weed "on occasion", and indicated that he hung out with some pretty shady characters, not unlike himself. You could wonder if his abuse of the substance led him in part to be racist, but who knows? What I certainly do know, is that he was one filthy little left-wing bigot, and I'm not even sure if he really was from Australia, because his last name, "Erceg" which he gave at one point, sounded more Hungarian.

Oh, and while we're on the subject, I also was once yelled at on another topic I once wrote by a blabbermouth named "Steve" who certainly did come from Canada, who wrote the following comment:

Your claim that marijuana destroys creativity is blatantly and totally false. Some people would claim that it enhances creativity, which I don't believe -- except to the extent that feeling relaxed might help.

You can't even count the number of people who used marijuana and were creative, however -- and it only takes one to prove you wrong. In addition to Carl Sagan, I present for your consideration Pierre Berton. Berton was the most famous and important Canadian non-fiction writer of all time. He wrote 50 books, and won the Governor-General's award three times, the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal AND Golden Jubilee Medal, the Nellie Award for the best public affairs broadcaster in Canadian radio, and the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour. He was a Companion of the Order of Canada. While doing all this, he also enjoyed using marijuana for 40 years.

Before you say anything about marijuana and creativity, read Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World, and Berton's The Last Spike and The Arctic Grail. Then face facts.

Heh heh heh. Carl Sagan? That daydreamer? As Debbie Schlussel says:

Uh, wasn't that the same Carl Sagan who told us that Reagan's nukes would soon result in nuclear winter? Sagan died, nuclear winter never happened, and Ronald Reagan's steadfastness on our nuke build-up helped bring down the Communist Soviet Union. Sorry, but pot use does not equal genius, just fantasy.

That poor little putz from Canada who blabbered about Sagan and Berton sure does fantasize himself as well. He should pay attention to Debbie, who certainly knows a lot better than he does. "Steve" then went on to say, after I'd pointed out that people like him, from what I could tell, were ultra-leftists:

You obviously did not check the facts about Pierre Berton. If you had, you would know that my statements are true.

America's position on drugs is in fact ridiculous, and the majority of Americans know it, including such ultra-leftists as William F. Buckley, Jr.:

http://www.nationalreview.com/12feb96/drug.html

Whoops, that's where you know that something's wrong, when he doesn't properly acknowledge the fact that Buckley was an ultra-rightist (but a phony at that!). And when he starts insulting Americans by implying that they're stupid. In other words, this kook whose comments I display here was - what else? - an addict himself. Poor man. He must be out of his mind, and he's certainly an embarrassment unto Canada. And attempting to govern someone else's right to free speech, he dares? Dear dear dear.

And Berton, while he may not have deteriorated over the short term, certainly could have over the long term, and it's possible that he didn't even first chug cannabis when he wrote all his books. So message to "Steve": take your crud about Berton and Sagan and stick it down your bottom.

Lastly, why do I use the actual name of this drug instead of the slang "marijuana"? I gave the answer to that earlier. Yes, I think it's insulting, so I'm not using that particular slang again, period.

Update: The Washington Post has an interesting related article that tells how teenage girls are especially at risk if they gobble cannabis.

Labels: United States