Patch Peer Panel Question of the Week

This week's question comes from Patch. Patch wants to know the severity of Marijuana use among local students. 

Some believe Marijuana is ‘drug of choice’ among teens, study finds--Booze and dope are evil. Kids have that drummed into them from grade school on. Yet while teenage drinking continues a steady decline, marijuana use is on the rise among American teens, who see the warning message as bogus when it comes to pot.

Allison Hermann, St. Joseph's Academy

I think the use of illegal drugs is becoming too common among teenagers today. I think, especially with Marijuana, that teens are not thinking about how it can hurt them later on in life and that it really is bad for them. I think that teenagers do not treat Marijuana as an illegal thing because so many people do it which makes them believe that it is okay.

I also feel that more and more teenagers today are either peer pressured into doing drugs, or that the stress that they have in their life leads and causes them to turn to drugs. I think teenagers today are given so much stress which a lot is unnecessary which is leading to them to do drugs.

I am not saying that that is an excuse, but I do believe it is a factor. Drug use among teenagers today is becoming too common and I think word needs to get across to teenagers about the dangers of drugs.

Victoria Watson, Villa Duchense

I don’t find drug use at my age very appealing. The idea of becoming addicted to something that could kill me, like overdosing on heroine, does not resonate very well with me either.

Drugs are used as a distraction, a way to find temporary escape from stress. Teens use Marijuana because it makes them feel relaxed, and takes the focus off of what bothers them. While I understand that students have personal lives that can be overbearing, and need an outlet for all the stress, I do not believe that drug usage is the solution.

Some teens smoke because they find it as a way for them to control themselves. I view it as a crutch and an unnecessary dependency. Drug usage and addiction distract teens from school, sports, and relationships, and can make them volatile individuals. I do not condone it, as it changes people.

Isabelle Stillman, John Burroughs

Students at my school at least are not in to hard drugs. The Marijuana scene is not very large either. I think peer pressure is the biggest spreader of drugs, but not in the sense of a peer physically forcing drugs on others.

Usually, on lookers would feel as if there image would be improved if they joined in the drug scene. Pressured by their internal insecurities, students turn to drugs. But I have never know a situation at my school in which students have been greatly harmed by Marijuana or any other drug.

Molly Soto, St. Joseph's Academy

The use of illegal drugs by teen aged students is a very concerning issue espically with the widespread use of Heroine. Some teens are becoming highly addicted to the use of drugs. Their lives are being ruined because they no longer attend school and they completely cut themselves off from their families and society.

For me personally, I would never put myself in a situation where I could become addicted to drugs because I have big dreams for my life that I am not willing to put in jeopardy.

Rebecca Antony, MICDS

I don't know very much about this topic--but in general, I don't think that drugs are appropriate for any age level because they all have the same potentially fatal and/or damaging effects on people of all ages. I don't think drugs that do not kill straightaway would be illegal if not for the addictiveness of these incredibly damaging substances.

If these substances weren't that addictive, or only addictive to a small population of people, then they would be legal. Instead, they are very addicting according to most people, and addictiveness to a potentially fatal substance can mess with your reasoning, health, and is generally never a good thing.

Catherine Toman, St. Joseph's Academy Academy

I think Marijuana is almost easier for teens to access than alcohol. In my experience, I've found that there's always someone within every friend group who has access to it. That is dangerous because marijuana is a gateway drug--if teens are willing to break the law to access alcohol, and then willing to break the law to access marijuana, what other substances will they try to access?

I'm not expressly saying that using marijuana will without a doubt lead to the usage of other illegal drugs, but I am saying that it makes sense to imagine anyone who has tried (or even got addicted to) heroin or cocaine or oxycontin tried getting high off marijuana first.

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