http://www.startribune.com/stories/1556/4972150.html "Fewer American youths are using mar1juana, LSD and Ecstasy, but more are abusing prescription drugs, says a government report released Thursday. The 2003 National Survey on Drug Use and Health also found youths and young adults are more aware of the risks of using pot once a month or more frequently. A highlight of the study was a 5 percent decline in the number of 12- to 17-year-olds who ever have used pot. Among 12- and 13-year olds, current mar1juana smokers - those who said they used it within a month of the survey - declined nearly 30 percent. ``It is encouraging news that more American youths are getting the message that drugs are dangerous, including mar1juana,'' Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said. For youths age 12 to 17, use of Ecstasy and LSD in the year leading up to the survey dropped significantly - by 41 percent for Ecstasy and 54 percent for LSD, the study said. The study, which also included adults, found that overall nearly 20 million people aged 12 and over use illegal drugs. But there was a 20 percent decline between 2002 and 2003 in the number of youths that were 'heavy users' of pot - those who smoke it either daily or at least 20 days each month, according to the findings released by the Department of Health and Human Services. Survey results on alcohol use showed the numbers of binge and heavy drinkers not changing between 2002 and 2003. About 54 million Americans ages 12 and older binged on alcohol at least once in the 30 days before being surveyed. These people had five or more drinks on five or more occasions in the past month. People 18 to 25 showed the highest prevalence of binge and heavy drinking. But while the findings on drinking showed little change, the study found more people had tried prescription pain relievers who did not need them for medical reasons. The most striking increase was a 15 percent rise in prescription drug abuse by people 18 to 25. In the broader population of 12 and over, 5 percent more people took those drugs recreationally. The study found that young people who were exposed to anti-drug messages outside school took notice - with rates of current pot use 25 percent lower than those who did not get those messages. And youths who believed their parents would strongly disapprove of mar1juana used it 80 percent less than others........ . . ."
Kids shouldn't be using drugs. They're not old enough to fully understand what they're doing to their bodies, and it's a decision they're just not prepared to make. I vehemently disagree with virtually every aspect of the disastrous "war on drugs," but it is good news that fewer kids are reporting drug usage.
The War on Drugs is not about keeping people from using drugs. The War on Drugs is about making sure drug users take the drugs those in power want them to take, like alcohol and prescription drugs, rather than the ones they don't want them to take, like mar1juana and cocaine. Judging by the article, the War on Drugs is working. And that is making the distillers and drug manufacturers of this country very fat and happy.
Um, no it doesn't. When over half of our young people use illegal drugs before they even leave high school, there is no way you can claim that this idiotic mantra has any impact whatsoever. While it is nice to see that some drug use has declined, it does not change the fact that prohibition causes FAR more harm than it cures. Nor does it change the fact that in the only place in the world where mar1juana use is tolerated, kids use pot at around half the rates we see here. A 5% decline in mar1juana use rates is OK, but in a regulated market, we could reduce that number DRASTICALLY. In addition, changing trends in drug usage are common and happen all the time. While use of LSD has dropped significantly since the 1970s, that drop almost perfectly coincides with a corresponding rise in other drugs, most notably MDMA (ecstacy). Note that even the report found a significant increase in recreational use of prescription drugs. There is hope for our young people, but it is in the form of regulation of the market.
I said that LSD use is down since the '70s, corresponding with a rise in the use of other drugs like MDMA. In this report, some drug usage declined, corresponding with the rise in recreational use of prescription drugs. Prohibition is like squeezing a baloon. You might temporarily get people to reduce usage of one chemical, but use of other chemicals rise at the same time. The only way we will reduce overall drug use is to take the air out of the baloon by reducing demand. The only thing that has been shown to actually reduce demand is education, which could be required in a regulated market. Prohibition does not work. Any of you defending it need to wonder why, if it does work, do half of our young people use illegal drugs before they leave high school AND report that illegal drugs are easier to obtain than alcohol?
Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner! Andy, that's an almost brazen act of intelligence. Posts like that should be prohibited in a forum that some purport to be filled with nothing but National Enquirer material. Good golly, Miss Molly!
Bingo. Whenever one drugs gets really popular, eventually something else comes along to take it's place. LSD used to be huge, but once MDMA came along, it became almost impossible to find. The rave culture has died down in the past few years, so I can see how MDMA use would be down. But as the article mentions, using prescription drugs recreationally is on the rise big time and it will only be a matter of time before something else comes along to take it's place. Why so many people have a problem seeing this endless cycle is beyond me. This system has failed miserably. Our government needs to accept that and come up with a new plan.
andymoon, I don't understand. You do drugs and you are FOR drug use, but you are looking for a policy that will decrease the use of drugs? Sounds to me like you're looking for somethign that will make it easier for those who want it to get it, as long as the numbers stay the same. But what you don't realize is that even if the numbersstay the same, it's not good. Because banning drugs sends a message to kids, while allowing them sends another message. Honestly, I'm nto very familiar with this issue, but that's my point of view on this topic.
You're not very familiar with andymoon's take on this topic -- which is weird since you hang around this forum plenty. andymoon doesn't endorse drug use and, as far as I know, he doesn't use drugs. He opposes the drug war, as he's outlined ad nauseum, for all the bad effects it perpetrates. His patience with people who continue to characterize him as a druggie is truly humbling to me. If I were him, reading posts like yours, after he's continually outlined his position, I would have lost it long ago. If you actually read his posts you'd understand that he doesn't need to be a pothead to recognize the folly and the danger of the drug war. Since you obviously don't read them, I don't know why you bother posting in these threads. But if you must post in them it'd be so much cooler if you wouldn't call him a druggie. You make an ass of yourself when you do.
Thank you, you have no idea how many of my friends i have seen peer pressured into doing some pot. I mean its just casual, like here, and they wanna fit in so they take a hit, next thing you know its happening all the time. Man, i still dont see how those kids do that stuff.
Thanks batman Jones, and my apologies to andymoon. Like I said, I don't know much about this, and I don't go into the drug-war threads often. I come here for the internation politics threads more than anything.
And if those kids found it between difficult and impossible to acquire drugs in the first place, they would not be able to pressure their friends into using. If we regulated the market, we could create a system that destroys the black market and, by using the right leverage, we can create a situation where kids find it nigh on impossible to get drugs. IMO, the number one issue our drug policy must focus on is reducing the number of young people who use drugs. That hasn't happened at all in the 32 years since Nixon coined the phrase "war on drugs" in the '70s. Since then, at least half of our young people have reported using illegal drugs before they ever get out of high school. This policy is not working. We can keep drugs out of the hands of our children if we change our tactics.
I am NOT for drug use. I consistently talk about how dangerous drugs are, how much damage they can cause, and the adverse effects they can have. The thing is, prohibition causes more harm than drugs themselves ever could. Specifically, if we can make it between difficult and impossible for kids to get ahold of drugs, we can reduce overall drug usage rates as well as addiction rates. If the only way to accomplish this goal is to regulate the market for adults, then I am all for it. This is the biggest fallacy in the drug war. The only "messages" that kids get about drugs now are 1) That adults lie about them 2) That adults hypocritically say one thing while doing another regarding drug use and 3) That they might as well use drugs while they are young and the penalties are relatively light. Is it OK to continue throwing money into a program that has not worked a whit in over 30 years to "send a message?" When kids consistently report that they trust their peers more than adults when talking about drugs, the "message" has been lost and we have given up our chance to positively impact their decisions regarding drug use. Please continue to read and respond to these threads. I think that if you keep an open mind and look at the evidence, you cannot help but oppose prohibition.
Here is a story from Germany. Newsbrief: German Drug Deaths Down, Government Cites Harm Reduction Policies 9/10/04 The German Ministry of Health and Social Security reported September 2 that drug-related deaths had decreased by 11.6% in the first half of 2004. Some 555 died in Germany from the use of illegal drugs during that period, down from more than 600 during the same period a year earlier. "The decrease of the drug related deaths is a stable trend going back several years," said the German state secretary for drug issues, Marion Caspers-Merk, in a statement announcing the figures. "This is a confirmation of the drug policy of the federal government, which has persevered in a number of measures to improve the treatment of opiate addicts and to improve their chances to survive," he said. Germany has been a pioneer in the use of safe injection rooms, opiate substitute treatments, and heroin maintenance therapies. "The quality of substitution treatment has improved and the legal possibility to open consumption rooms was created," Caspers-Merk added. "Furthermore, the model project for heroin subscription contributes to the positive developments. Nevertheless every death is one death too any. Therefore we need to give more support to harm reduction and treatment of addiction." (Thanks to Eberhard Schatz for the translation.) http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/353/germany.shtml
