REPORT CITES DANGERS OF TEENS' USE OF MARIJUANA

Washington, D.C. - Depression, teens and marijuana are a dangerous mix
that can lead to dependency, mental illness or suicidal thoughts,
according to a White House report being released Friday.

A teen who has been depressed at some point in the past year is more
than twice as likely to have used marijuana as teens who have not
reported being depressed - 25 percent compared with 12 percent, said
the report by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

"Marijuana is a more consequential substance of abuse than our culture
has treated it in the last 20 years," said John Walters, director of
the office. "This is not just youthful experimentation that they'll
get over as we used to think in the past."

Smoking marijuana can lead to more serious problems, Walters said in
an interview. For example, using marijuana increases the risk of
developing mental disorders by 40 percent, the report said. And teens
who smoke pot at least once a month over a yearlong period are three
times more likely to have suicidal thoughts than nonusers, it said.

The report also cited research that showed that teens who smoke
marijuana when feeling depressed were more than twice as likely as
their peers to abuse or become addicted to pot - 8 percent compared
with 3 percent. Experts who have worked with children say there's
nothing harmless about marijuana. "I've seen many, many kids' lives
negatively impacted and taken off track because of marijuana," said
Elizabeth Stanley-Salazar, director of adolescent services for Phoenix
House treatment centers in California. "It's somewhat Russian
roulette. There are so many factors, emotional, psychological,
biological. You can't predict the experimentation and how it will
impact a kid."

The drug control policy office analyzed about a dozen studies looking
at marijuana use, including research by the federal Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention and the Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administration.

Overall, marijuana use among teens has decreased 25 percent since
2001, down to about 2.3 million kids who used pot at least once a
month, the drug control office said.

While the drop is encouraging, Walters appealed to parents to
recognize signs of possible drug use and depression.

"It's not something you look the other way about when your teen starts
appearing careless about their grooming, withdrawing from the family,
losing interest in daily activities," Walters said. "Find out what's
wrong."