Parents, if you're concerned that your teen may be using pot, then this study gives you a sense of hope.
In a recent study conducted by Christopher Salas-Wright and his team, the number of teens who are using pot, also known as marijuana or cannabis, has been declining since more than 10 years go.
To come up with the conclusion, they checked out the answered questionnaires of over 500,000 teens who formed part of the national survey relating to health and drug use.
Based on their answers, they were fewer teens between the ages of 12 and 14 who were engaged in pot use. The same trend could be found for teens from 15 to 17 years old. The decline, on the other hand, began as early as 2002. As comparison, there were only 4.5 percent of teens between 12 and 14 who smoked weed in 2013, a drop of 1.5% registered in 2002.
Moreover, when these figures are compared to those of teens many years ago, present-day teens turn out to be less approving of weed.
Speaking with Yahoo Parenting, Salas-Wright expressed his deep interest over the results of the study, especially since that people tend to be more accepting about weed than many years ago. Several states, for example, have legalized marijuana for recreational or medical purposes or both. A number of countries have also allowed the drug, providing that growers, buyers, and sellers abide in the limitations set by law.
In those states where marijuana is legal, many apothecaries or weed shops have already opened, selling a wide variety of cannabis, with different effects and flavors.
With this kind of mentality, the researcher was initially concerned on the impact it has on teens' attitude toward cannabis.
He plans to take the study a step further by looking into the reasons of the decline. He wants to know whether there are other explanations other than better prevention programs.