WASHINGTON — More teens are smoking marijuana, with nearly 1 in 10 lighting up at least 20 or more times a month, according to a new survey of young people.

The report by The Partnership at Drugfree.org, being released today, also said abuse of prescription medicine may be easing a bit among young people in grades 9 through 12, but it still remains high.

Partnership President Steve Pasierb says the mindset among parents is that it’s just a little weed or a few pills – no biggie.

“Parents are talking about cocaine and heroin, things that scare them,” said Pasierb. “Parents are not talking about prescription drugs and marijuana.”

Use of harder drugs – cocaine and methamphetamine – has stabilized in recent years, the survey showed. But past-month usage of marijuana grew from 19 percent in 2008 to 27 percent last year. Also alarming, says Pasierb, is the percentage of teens smoking pot 20 or more times a month. That rate went from 5 percent in 2008 to 9 percent last year, or about 1.5 million teens.

The study suggests a link between teens who smoke pot more regularly and the use of other drugs. Teens who smoked 20 times or more a month were almost twice as likely as kids who smoked pot less frequently to use ecstasy, cocaine or crack.

Other findings:

• One in 10 teens reports using prescription pain medication in the past year. That’s down from a peak of 15 percent in 2009 and 14 percent in 2010.

• Just over half of Hispanic teens say they have used an illicit drug, such as Ecstasy or cocaine, in the past year. That compares with 39 percent for Caucasian teens and 42 percent for African American teens.

The Marijuana Policy Project, which advocates legalization, says making pot legal for adults might help cut teen usage.

“We definitely don’t think that minors should be using marijuana any more than they should be drinking or using tobacco, but arresting people for doing that never stops minors,” said Morgan Fox, a spokesman for the group. “If we remove marijuana from the criminal market and have the market run by responsible business people that have an incentive to check IDs and not sell to minors, then we might see those rates drop again.”

The Partnership’s study was sponsored by the MetLife Foundation. Researchers surveyed 3,322 teens in grades 9-12 with anonymous questionnaires that the youngsters filled out at school from March to June 2011. The study has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Based in New York, The Partnership at Drugfree.org is formerly The Partnership for a Drug-Free America – perhaps best known for the “this is your brain on drugs” ads of the 1980s and 1990s. The nonprofit group launched its new name in 2010 to position itself as more of a resource to parents and to avoid the misperception the partnership is a government organization.

 

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