A LURE FOR YOUNG TEENS, MARIJUANA CAN TAKE OVER LIVES

A lure for young teens, marijuana can take over lives

At age 19, Ariel Hendricks has done a lot of hard living in a lot of
suburban places.

During the past five years, she has bounced from Greenhills to Loveland to
Fairfield to Forest Park, living with her mother, her father, a boyfriend,
and a female friend who needed a roommate.

Now, Hendricks has a few things to say to people who think marijuana is
mostly harmless. After getting deep into the drug at age 14, she wants
people to know it took 13 months of residential treatment - in Milford - to
break her addiction.

"I had a lot of problems getting along with other girls," Hendricks said.
"I wanted to be with the older, cuter guys. I wanted to be the party girl
who would do anything, say anything."

Experts want parents to know that Hendrick's story is common for marijuana
abusers in several ways. Those who start smoking pot in their early teens
are much more likely to become addicted than those who start as young
adults. And in addition to connections made at school, many teens find it
easy to get drugs through older co-workers they meet at their part-time jobs.

Hendricks shared her story recently at Cincinnati Children's Hospital
Medical Center as part of a "Marijuana and Kids" awareness campaign
sponsored by the White House Office of National Drug Control and Policy.

The $150 million campaign, which pays mostly for anti-drug advertising plus
materials for outreach programs, was launched in September. Cincinnati was
the 15th city to host a roundtable-style discussion of marijuana issues.

Dr. Michael Spigarelli, a substance abuse expert at Children's who consults
with the Hamilton County Juvenile Justice Center, said Hendricks'
experience reflects many common trends among teen drug abusers.

Overall teen marijuana use has dipped slightly in the past year, but twice
as many eighth-graders are trying pot now compared to a decade ago,
according to the National Household Survey of Drug Abuse. That's important
because nearly 12 percent of kids who start smoking pot at age 14 become
addicted, compared to about 2 percent of those try it after reaching age
18, Spigarelli said.

[SIDEBAR] --- SIX MYTHS Marijuana is harmless You can't get addicted to
marijuana Marijuana won't hurt you - it's just a plant Marijuana
doesn't make you lose control, it just makes you mellow Marijuana isn't
as popular as other drugs like ecstasy There's not much parents or others
can do to stop youths from experimenting. Source: White House Office of
National Drug Control Policy