Posted on 12/16/2009 10:47:58 AM PST by bs9021
Just Say No Smoking
Malcolm A. Kline, December 16, 2009
On Monday the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) gave us some good and bad news. “The report says cigarette smoking was at the lowest point in the survey’s history on all measures for eighth, 10th and 12th graders,” NIDA reported on December 14, 2009. ‘For example, only 2.7 percent of eighth graders describe themselves as daily smokers, down from a peak rate of 10.4 percent in 1996.”
“Similarly, 11.2 percent of high school seniors say they smoke daily, less than half of the 24.6 percent rate in 1997.” The survey commissioned by NIDA is named the Monitoring the Future (MTF) study.
Nevertheless, NIDA goes on to reveal that “Marijuana use across the three grades has shown a consistent downward trend since the mid-1990s, however, the decline has stalled, with rates at the same level as five years ago.”
Full disclosure: This writer’s drugs of choice have been nicotine and caffeine for about the last 35 years. Having made that admission, dare I suggest that the zeal of the tobacco abolitionists may have been misplaced and Nancy Reagan may have been onto something with her “Just Say No To Drugs” campaign?
“In the 2009 survey, reported past year marijuana use was about the same as the previous year: 32.8 percent of 12th graders, 26.7 percent of 10th graders, and 11.8 percent of eighth graders,” NIDA reveals. “However, marijuana use is still down significantly from its peak in the mid-late 1990s.”
“The MTF survey also measures teen attitudes about drugs, including perceived harmfulness, perceived availability, and disapproval, which are often harbingers of abuse.”...
(Excerpt) Read more at academia.org ...
It’s hard to defend teenager use of drugs or cigarettes.
Somebody is going to have to step up to fund the programs paid for by tobacco taxes when all the older smokers quit or die.
The government needs the tax money. They won’t ever say no.
I've never seen anyone try. Still trying to spread your nanny state trash I see.
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