There's danger in dismissing report linking teen marijuana use ...

That is yellow journalism at its finest. Congratulations!

Once again, people are missing the overarching fact that kids shouldn't have access to any drug. So the real question is what to do about it? Prohibition does not work. Drug dealers will seel to teens. Merchants risk losing their license & livelyhood if they don't card for age. Marijuana use will not go away. The generation coming into power has decided that marijuana is safer than tobacco or alcohol. So, the only way to keep kids from getting mj is to legalize it. This would drive down cost to where drug dealers would no longer find it profitable to sell mj. Use would go up initiallly, due to the novelty. But, in every country where marijuana use has been allowed, it quickly wend down to below 40% per person less than here in the USA. Because, it becomes boring. This would send the right signal to our youth. They've been able to get mj easier than cigarettes. This will end when they can't get mj from illegal drug dealers. Plus, they won't easily get it from merchants. This requires the police to check merchants for underage selling. But, they won't have to hunt down merchants. And, licensed merchants aren't likely to shoot at them with guns. Besides, the study in question is flawed. You can look up the excellent rebuttal's online. In actuallity, there is greater evidence that smoking mj relieves the symptoms of depression. Still, kids shouldn't use any drugs. Because, their pre-frontal lobes (the brains seat of maturity) don't fully mature until people are in their twenties. As it stands, we don't control marijuana at all. It's only after kids get & use mj that a drug dealer might be arrested. We need to be pro-cative. This study was designed to scare parents into backing the current mj laws. In reality it points out the flaw that kids do get mj easily. Or, this study wouln't have been created in the first place. Legalization equals true control. Like with tobacco & alcohol. Legalization controls distribution, price, taxation, profits, carding for age, true fact based education, farming, licensing, qualty, quantity, and carding for age. Prohibition didn't work for alcohol. It won't work for tobacco, marijuana, or any other drug. But, the fact is that marijuan will be legalized, crime will drop dramatically, police will be freed up to pursue Rapists, Child Molesters, iIdentity Thieves & Murderers. All crimes with appallingly low clearance rates. Due, in part to chasing after non-violent marijuana users, instead of hard-core violent felons. Please, don't be distracted by fear mongering aimed at scaring concerned parents. The real issue is & always will be effective prevention. Tobacco use went down when advertising was cut down. Alcohol use is currently on the rise due to advertising that glamourises it's use. Advertising of drugs, alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, & marijuana should be discouraged. Two recent Federal studies show that marijuana addiction is rare. That withdrawal is mild & short lived. Easier to stop using than caffeine. So, let's stop scaring & start doing the only thing that will end the failed war on marijuana. Legalize & control, now. Since, people will use mj anyway. Why aren't we getting to have the tax money from it's sale? I'm a patriot American who is doing his duty by speaking out for change. Allowing a 70 year old failed war on the people to go on is un-patriotic.

Maybe the anxiety and depression are prevalent because innocent people are being labeled as criminals...

Like alcohol, pot is a depressant. That simply means it will reinforce any tendency toward depression. Since correlation does not prove causation, it is impossible to say what comes first or if there is any relationship.

Rick

Anyone ever think maybe these people are self-medicating their anxiety and mental disorders with marijuana? Marijuana has been used to help the illnesses discussed here for thousands of years. What came first the chicken or the egg? The action or the genes.

Hmm, no, it's not addictive like heroin yet it has been proven to be addictive and detrimental and can wreck your life? Sounds like they don't know what they are talking about. Alcohol and tobacco cause far more damage than a plant. No one has ever died from marijuana, compared to the millions that have from alcohol and cigarette use. I don't see why alcohol and tobacco are legal and marijuana isn't, seeing as alcohol and tobacco are highly addictive, cause cancer, liver, lung damage, and have the potential for death.

Trey wrote:

Maybe the anxiety and depression are prevalent because innocent people are being labeled as criminals...

Actually, marijuana is a psychoactive drug.

Umm, no....
It's that blasted Emo crap.
Put some dance music on once in a while, you'll be much better off.

As a former drug counselor who focused on homeless youth, many of whom had life-threatening drug dependence/addiction issues, I wholeheartedly agree that marijuana is a powerful and potentially dangerous substance. But it is NOT physically addictive or potentially fatal, like cocaine or heroin.

I also agree some advocates of legalization of marijuana -- medical and/or general -- do indeed minimize the risks of marijuana, which is highly irresponsible and dangerous. Ingesting too much marijuana food, for instance, can cause acute intoxication lasting for hours (more than 8 hours is not uncommon), negatively affecting judgment and coordination. This can be a very frightening and potentially dangerous experience (do you remember the police officer who called 911, because he thought he was dying, after ingesting too much cannabis food?).

That said, marijuana has never killed from toxicity, which is remarkable, especially when you consider our FDA-approved medications, like Vioxx, kill tens of thousands of people per year -- even when they are properly prescribed and properly taken.

Lying to our youth about any drug is a much greater danger than marijuana; because lying destroys the sacred trust essential for conveying the truth about all drugs. When we lie about marijuana, many youth assume we are also lying about more fatal drugs, like heroin, cocaine, meth, oxycontin, etc...

One of the baseless claims this ill-informed editorial perpetuates is the marijuana-mental illness link. If there was any CAUSATION, the rates of mental illness would've spiked with the increase in cannabis consumption, which is not the case.

If there is no significant CAUSATION to mental illness, as this editorial acknowledges, why is this editorial peddling fear about a supposed causation?

The correlation between marijuana and mental illness exists, because many people with mental illness do indeed self-medicate with marijuana, with varying degrees of success at minimizing symptoms.

Some of the media, like this outlet, perpetuate blatant misinformation, because they haven't checked their sources or their alleged "facts." Their readers, however, are often "light years" ahead in the Science department and will not tolerate dis/misinformation about marijuana, because lies can only harm.

Please catch up on the facts, Sun-Sentinel, like marijuana has never killed from toxicity in thousands of years and has been used as a medicine for thousands of years.

We do need to keep marijuana from our youth, but lies will not help us accomplish this.

Here's a great link to the American College of Physicians'(ACP) position paper supporting MEDICAL Marijuana that was released in January 2008.

The American College of Physicians is the largest medical specialty organization and the second largest physician group in the United States, representing 124,000 member doctors specializing in internal medicine and related subspecialties, including cardiology, neurology, pulmonary disease, oncology and infectious diseases. The College publishes Annals of Internal Medicine, the most widely cited medical specialty journal in the world:

http://www.acponline.org/acp_news/medmarinews...

Here's another great link to Americans for Safe Access - the “nation’s largest organization of patients, medical professionals, scientists and concerned citizens promoting safe and legal access to cannabis for therapeutic use and research.”

This is great source for medical, legal, and current news regarding medical marijuana:

http://www.safeaccessnow.org/

MarijuanaLies wrote:

or potentially fatal, like cocaine or heroin.

Or alcohol..
How many frat pledges have died from acute poisoning.
Here is a british report that compares all drugs of abuse legal and not.
http://www.rsadrugscommission.org.uk/pdf/RSA_...
"Alcohol played a role in 78 percent of assaults and 88 percent of criminal damage"
The 'war on drugs' is a dismal failure and is producing more prisons for profit and criminals than than rehabilitated users.
http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2008/05/05/us...
In NYC the police are trumping up 'posession' collars to 'display' to pad their blotter.
http://www.reason.com/news/show/126363.html

Every drug of abuse has it's hazards and dangers. The government cannot expect to have any positive influence by keeping it's citizens ignorant of the facts.
The madness must stop...

And here's my last link to the aforementioned JAMA report on FATAL adverse drug reactions (ADRs) to properly prescribed and properly taken FDA-approved medications:

http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/279...

We are forced to be the guinea pigs for drugs that regularly harm and kill; yet we cannot use an ancient herb that has never killed?

Does that really make sense?

Marijuana is a depressant? That's a fact? It's actually ridiculous seeing as how most scientist can't agree on whether it's a hallucinogen, stimulant or depressant...but most conclude it's a hallucinogen. Every major study done by the GOVERNMENT since the 1800's has concluded that marijuana poses less danger to society than alcohol and the criminalization of it is illogical. Your concern about underage use is rational, but prohibition of marijuana isn't. Do you realize that there wasn't a teenage drinking problem till alcohol's prohibition. Just like teens have been using marijuana far more since it was made illegal. Unlike you, i can provide a source for my information:

http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/hemp...

But it's not a far-fetched concept that flawed facts lead to flawed conclusions.

What a load of crap.

This author is nothing more than a bootlicking government stooge.

No mention of the percentage of teens who smoke marijuana. According to government stats, almost half of all teens try marijuana before they graduate high school.

No mention of how in the last NIDA survey, more high school seniors said marijuana was easier to get than beer, or tobacco.

No mention of any of the statisitcs on teen drug use.

Like.....

The increase in the use of marijuana has been especially pronounced. Between 1992 and 2005 past-month use of marijuana increased from:

* 12% to 20% among high school seniors.
* 8% to 15% among 10th graders.
* 4% to 7% among 8th graders.

Percent of high school seniors reporting they could obtain drugs fairly easily or very easily, 2006

Marijuana 84.9 %

In 2005, 25% of all students in grades 9 through 12 reported someone had offered, sold, or given them an illegal drug on school property. There was no measurable change with the percentage of students who reported that drugs were offered, sold, or given to them at school between 2003 and 2005.

Males were more likely than females to report that drugs were offered, sold, or given to them on school property in each survey year between 1993 and 2005. In 2005, 29% of males and 22% of females reported availability of drugs.

http://ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/dcf/du.htm

YES, MARIJUANA SHOULD STAY ILLEGAL SO THAT THE EASIEST PLACE TO FIND MARIJUANA WILL CONTINUE TO BE ANY PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL.

Jeesh. What a moron.

People like this have no business calling themselves journalists.

Pathetic.

btw, some great posts from all the other people who replied.

It is nice to know that the American people know more than this so-called journalist about marijuana. Maybe the Sun Sentinel should pull a homeless person off the street for the next article. The homeless person will likely know more than this so-called reporter.

Heck the reporter didn't even know that marijuana isn't addictive, INSTEAD believing propaganda which has been known to be false for decades.

It seems the lies told from the REEFER MADNESS campaign still continue.