Pot Pulls Ahead

 
by Patrick Appel

Bruce Mirken points to a new survey:

More high school seniors report smoking marijuana in the past 30 day than smoked cigarettes: 20.6 percent vs. 20.1 percent. And marijuana use is up (albeit in the same general range it’s been in for several years) while teen cigarette smoking continues to decline, and has dropped markedly since the early ‘90s.

Jacob Sullum jumps in:

To put the recent upward trend in perspective, past-month marijuana use by high school seniors is still only about half as common as it was in 1979. Still, federal officials lament that "the percentage of eighth-graders who saw a 'great risk' in occasionally smoking marijuana fell from 50.5 percent in 2004 to 48.1 percent in 2008 and 44.8 percent this year." It speaks volumes about the scientific basis of our current drug policy that the people charged with implementing it openly pin their hopes for success on their ability to trick 13-year-olds into believing something that is patently false.

(Image by Flickr user Splifr. More of his images here)