Marijuana use rising among children and teens. Cause for alarm?

My bedtime reading material last night included the July edition of Family Circle magazine.  This issue had an excellent article by Michael Winerip about the increase of marijuana use in young people.  While this fact was not surprising to me, many of the other facts outlined in this piece were.

According to the article, most kids use pot for the first time during the months of June and July.  That makes sense to me.  School is out, no team practice (or team drug tests) and most parents are working leaving tweens and teens bored and unsupervised.  Boredom combined with a lack of supervision is never a good thing for teenagers.

Medicinal use of marijuana is now legal in 14 states with many other states expected to follow suit.  Many people believe this is just the first step on the road to legalizing recreational use.  So, should we be alarmed if our tween or teen "experiments"?  After reading this article, I have to say yes.

While pot can certainly be considered habit forming, it isn't usually considered addictive.  The problem with young people picking up this habit is that use of marijuana often leads to use of the drugs that are addictive including heroin and meth.  It should be noted that someone under the influence of pot is far more likely to make a bad decision or judgement call than he would if he weren't high.

 We have four young children.  Honestly, I don't really expect all four to reach adulthood toke free.  However, I do have a better understanding of the dangers associated with marijuana use.