Marijuana is the most commonly used illegal drug in the United States and the new popular social drug. Growing up it was cigarettes and alcohol and as a teen we were always sneaking or plotting a plan to get either or. Today there is a new social drug Cannabis (Marijuana). Kids today are using Cannabis at an alarming rate, the growing popularity of this drug now extends to adolescent children as young as 12 years old. In this paper I plan to educate you on the overall popularity of Cannabis among adolescent teens, what are the side effects of kids using Cannabis at such an early age, and why the sudden spike of use from kids aged 13 through 18 years of age. I did not realize how much of an issue this was till I asked my children have they ever experienced with the drug. To my astonishment the answer they answered yes like it was not an issue or the equivalent to smoking a cigarette. Being a parent I thought I would be able to tell if my children were using drugs. I thought being active and spending quality time with them would deter them from indulging. Studies show that kids who thought there parents were monitoring them used much less marijuana that then kids who did not (Reinberg, 2009). I may not …show more content…
In a survey of 8th, 10th, and 12th graders published by The National Institute on Drub Abuse (NIDA), it shows that the there was no increase in the use of marijuana. However, from 1993 to 2013 the percentage of high school seniors rose from 2.4 percent to 6.5 percent and the perception of how harmful marijuana was decreased (National Institute on Drub Abuse, 2014). One in three high school seniors reported they he/she has smoked marijuana in the past year (Good Housekeeping, 2010). Some speculation on why kids think it is safer now than anytime in the past could be from reports they hear on the news about legal marijuana and how it helps people that are