Teens and Drug Use
Oh, how times have changed.
I've been meaning to write about marijuana use for a while now, because I feel that the perspective I offer on the matter is one lacking from the public eye. Teenagers who use marijuana are generally portrayed in one of two different ways: the enviably cool stoners of Dazed and Confused or the drug-addicted "bad girls" of Thirteen (correct me if I'm wrong; I haven't seen the latter film and am basing this dichotomy on a superficial knowledge of the film's plot). The only time that I have seen anything comparable to my experiences with the drugs was in the "Chokin' & Tokin'" episode of Freaks and Geeks in which the main character, Lindsey, after getting stoned for the first time, proceeds to read the entry on "marijuana" in the encyclopedia. Let's just say that I read no less than twenty articles and research papers on the subject before finally conceding to myself that I was not going to get schizophrenia or kill all of my brain cells, never to see the light of conscious thinking ever again.
What I said in the old entry I linked to above is still my opinion on the use of narcotics and other "hard drugs," and while I do believe that some people may use marijuana as a "gateway drug," that number is small and depends largely on outside factors affecting the person (socioeconomic background, personal life, genetic predisposition to addiction, etc.). I have never made attempts to hide the fact that I occasionally use marijuana (occasionally meaning once every few months to twice a month), because I am neither ashamed of it nor displeased at the choices I have made. It was a wholly personal choice, uninfluenced by "peer pressure," and a well-informed one at that. Reading articles like Stephen J. Dunber's collection of opinions on the legalization of marijuana and watching documentaries on the war against drugs made me realize that many of the government's efforts to stem marijuana use in the teenage demographic are based on propaganda and, simply, a waste of money. In 1993 alone, the government spent $19 billion dollars on the "war on drugs." This money was reported as being largely spent on locking up people for marijuana possession-- people who were engaging in personal use of the drug, not even selling it to others. In a country in which healthcare and public education seem to be at a loss for money, why is this astronomical sum being spent on "crimes" that are, in many other countries, decriminalized, instead of spending it on the bettering of the public being? Has there been a drop in drug usage, particularly marijuana, in the last forty years that we have been fighting this war?
I'm not saying that the country should stop educating children about drug usage, it's just that, in my experience, all of the D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) classes that I was made to take in elementary school and throughout middle school didn't prevent me from doing anything. Whether or not I do certain drugs, and this seems to be a running theme amongst the teenagers that I know, is a personal choice. I have friends that do drugs because their home life is difficult, I have friends who do drugs simply because they would like to expand their consciousness, I have friends that don't do drugs because of bad personal connotations with it, and I have friends who don't do drugs simply because they just don't. I don't even hide my marijuana use from my parents, because I think that as the people who raised me, they deserve to know what I'm doing and to understand my reasoning for it.
When I first told my mother that I had tried marijuana, she was visibly somewhat upset. I think that she was accepting of my choice, and understood that it was almost inevitable for me to try it, but did not entirely see the reasons for a straight-A student to want to try drugs (although she herself had tried it a few times when she was younger). I explained my reasons to her, and we agreed that I was mature enough to make intelligent decisions.
I simply wish more people would talk to their parents about it. If they are resorting to drug use because of personal issues, this is of the utmost importance. Some parents will likely not be as accepting and understanding as mine have been, but some might-- and that makes a difference.
As for me, I'm going to a party. Time to be a teenager.
