Middle-aged parents are now more likely to smoke weed than their teenage kids

[jct74]

Middle-aged parents are now more likely to smoke weed than their teenage kids

By Christopher Ingraham
September 2, 2016

Smoking weed is often seen as an indulgence reserved for the young and the reckless: kids get high, in the popular imagination, but by and large their parents don't.

But new federal data show a stunning reversal of that age-old stereotype. Middle-aged Americans are now slightly more likely to use marijuana than their teenage children.

The research, released this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found that only 7.4 percent of Americans aged 12 to 17 years old smoked marijuana regularly in 2014, a 10 percent decline since 2002. But 8 percent of 35 to 44 year olds used marijuana regularly in 2014, surpassing use among teens for the first time since at least 2002. (Survey data prior to that year aren't directly comparable, as the methodology changed.)

And it's not just middle-aged folks who are indulging more often. Since 2002, regular marijuana use among Americans age 45 to 54 has jumped by nearly 50 percent. Among those ages 55 to 64, it's jumped by a whopping 455 percent (no, that's not a typo).

And among seniors, age 65+, monthly marijuana use is up 333 percent since 2002.

...

read more:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...teenaged-kids/

[Suzanimal]

Hippies getting older.

[mrsat_98]

Hippies getting older.

If the shoe fits.

[Suzanimal]

If the shoe fits.

I'm not a hippie. I'm a Gen X'er and I only smoke weed once a year. I have a friend who brings me a special birthday candle. I have to admit, I'd smoke more often if I weren't facing the very real prospect of going to jail every time I went to buy it, though.

[jct74]

CDC: Young People Say Marijuana Is Becoming Less Available

by Paul Armentano
September 2, 2016

Prohibitionists often claim that legalizing and regulating marijuana will increase youth access to the plant. But newly released federal data says just the opposite.

Fewer young people are reporting that marijuana is ‘easy’ to obtain, according to an analysis released this week by the US Centers for Disease Control.

Investigators from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the CDC evaluated annual data compiled by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health for the years 2002 to 2014. Researchers reported that the percentage of respondents aged 12 to 17 years who perceived marijuana to be “fairly easy or very easy to obtain” fell by 13 percent during this time period. Among those ages 18 to 25, marijuana’s perceived availability decreased by three percent.

Researchers further reported that “since 2002, the prevalence of marijuana use and initiation among U.S. youth has declined” – a finding that is consistent with numerous prior studies.

...

read more:
http://blog.norml.org/2016/09/02/cdc...ess-available/

[jct74]

CDC: More people are using marijuana, but fewer are abusing it

By Christopher Ingraham
September 1, 2016

Marijuana abuse and dependency are becoming less common, even as states roll back restrictions on the use of the drug, according to a new federal report.

In 2014, the number of Americans aged 12 and over meeting diagnostic criteria for marijuana abuse or dependency stood at 1.6 percent, a decline from 1.8 percent in 2002, according to the report released Thursday by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Declines in marijuana abuse and dependency were greatest among teens (37 percent decrease) and young adults (18 percent decrease) over that period. The change in marijuana abuse and dependency among adults age 26 and older was not statistically meaningful, according to the CDC.

...

The study noted that abuse and dependency were relatively rare among marijuana users: only 11.9 percent of people who used marijuana in the past year met one of these criteria. That number's fallen by nearly 30 percent since 2002, when 16.7 percent of past-year marijuana users were abusers of the drug or dependent on it.

...

Normally, researchers expect increases in heavy marijuana use to lead to more marijuana abuse or dependency. But the opposite seems to be happening here -- abuse and dependency are falling as heavy use becomes more common. That represents a bit of a public health puzzle.

...

read more:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...re-abusing-it/

[Zippyjuan]

California will be voting on legalization this fall. It was rejected by a small amount last time. We do have medical marijuana.

[dannno]

Long ago a band called "The Offspring" wrote a song called, "Come out and play"

It was about how kids under 18 could go and commit crimes and gang bang and deal drugs because when they turned 18 their record would be cleaned.

Before medical cannabis was popular in California, a lot of adults had to buy weed from high school kids, or younger people in general who were willing to take the risk to sell it.

Now any adult can get a medical card since cannabis treats such a huge multitude of conditions, and go buy it legally... there is a black market for herb but it has diminished.

I've been making this argument for at least 16 years, that if the legal restrictions were reduced for adults, it would be more difficult for kids to get. So this is no surprise at all.

[Jesse James]

I believe it. a ton of my friends parent's smoke, as well as my mom and step dad