MORE MONTANA TEENS REPORT SMOKING POT RATHER THAN CIGARETTES

BILLINGS - Cigarettes or marijuana?

For teenagers across the country - and in Montana - the choice is
apparently pot.

For the first time since 1981, the number of high school seniors
reporting they had smoked marijuana in the past 30 days outnumbered
those who said they had smoked cigarettes.

The rate of eighth-graders saying they have used an illicit drug in
the past year jumped to

16 percent, up from last year's 14.5 percent, with daily marijuana use
up in all grades surveyed, according to the 2010 Monitoring the Future
Survey.

For 12th-graders, declines in cigarette use accompanied by recent
increases in marijuana use have put marijuana ahead of cigarette
smoking by some measures. In 2010, 21.4 percent of high school seniors
had used marijuana in the past 30 days, while 19.2 percent smoked cigarettes.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse this month issued the survey, an
ongoing study of the behaviors, attitudes and values of American
secondary school students, college students and young adults. Each
year, a total of approximately 50,000 eighth-, 10th-, and 12th-grade
students are surveyed.

Key findings in the 36th annual survey include:

Marijuana use, which had been rising among teens for the past two
years, continues to rise again this year - a sharp contrast to the
considerable decline of the preceding decade.

Ecstasy use, which fell out of favor in the early 2000s as concerns
about its dangers grew, appears to be making a comeback.

Alcohol use - and, specifically, occasions of heavy drinking -
continues its long-term decline among teens into 2010, reaching
historically low levels.

The escalation of marijuana use comes as no surprise to Chris Simpson,
school resource officer at Skyview High in Billings. It is a pervasive
problem throughout the school district, which is a drug-free zone, as
well as the community. The mixed message about the legalization of
marijuana for medical purposes is in large part of the problem, he
said.

Youths seeking a high will sometimes steal marijuana from those
possessing a medical marijuana card. Simpson said students have
confided in him how easy it is now to obtain the illegal drug since it
has been legalized for medical purposes.

Montana voters approved medical marijuana by initiative in 2004. The
state, which a year ago had fewer than 4,000 medical marijuana
patients, now has nearly 23,000 people with a medical marijuana cards.
Growth and sale of the drug have become a booming business in the
state. The law allows qualified patients and their caregivers to grow
and/or possess a restricted number of marijuana plants.

Part of the spike in marijuana use also is youthful
experimentation.

"Kids always have to have a trend that they like to party with, and
marijuana seems to be the drug of choice right now," Simpson said.
"Back in the '80s, it was keggers."

The uptick in marijuana use coincides with a downturn in cigarette
sales, both in Montana and the rest of the nation. Cigarette sales in
Montana declined from 71 million packs sold in fiscal year 1999, to

46 million packs in fiscal year 2010, a 35 percent
drop.

"These high rates of marijuana use during the teen and pre-teen years,
when the brain continues to develop, places our young people at
particular risk," said Dr. Nora D. Volkow, director of the National
Institute on Drug Abuse. "Not only does marijuana affect learning,
judgment and motor skills, but research tells us that about 1 in 6
people who start using it as adolescents become addicted."

The state Department of Public Health and Human Services acknowledges
that marijuana is making a strong comeback among high school students,
with growing use and softening attitudes starting in eighth grade.

The 2010 Montana Prevention Needs Assessment suggests that marijuana
use rises as the parental acceptability increases. Perceived peer
acceptability of marijuana use also plays a role.

"The influence of parents and peers has a very strong correlation if
youth are going to use marijuana," said Vicki Turner, director of the
DPHHS Prevention Resource Center. "As parents, we need to step inward
during those adolescent years because if we can keep them from using
by age 19, their likelihood of using as an adult decreases
drastically."