According to the White House Office of the National Drug Control Policy, home to the nation’s drug czar’ John Walters, depressed teens are more likely to use pot. Moreover, says Walters, the converse is also true: pot-smoking teens are more likely to become depressed.
Bases covered.
Yes, it’s spring, which means it is time again for the ONDCP’s annual ‘lets-talk-shit-about-pot’ report. In the past we’ve hunkered down with our milk and graham crackers for nappy-time stories about pot smoking causing schizophrenia and pot smoking being the gateway to other illicit drug use. Such great tales! This year, we’ve got depression – man, depressed teens make me tired. And depressed.
According to the ONDCP’s new May report “Teen Marijuana Use Worsens Depression” (catchy title, eh?), “millions” of American teens have reported “weeks of hopelessness and a loss of interest in normal daily activities” and “many of these depressed teens are making the problem worse by using marijuana and other drugs.” This is, apparently, news. And parents are warned not to dismiss their teen’s moodiness as normal. Rather, they should consider that their kids may be depressed (clinically, we’re to assume), and that pot may be playing a “dangerous role” in their teen’s problems.
The ONDCP report calls the number of depressed teens “alarming,” yet feels no need to delve further into what could possibly be causing said depression. Why bother digging when you can simply blame pot smoking? (Meanwhile, it appears the ONDCP has taken its estimate of depressed teens from a two-year-old federal self-reported survey, so who knows how accurate the estimates are to begin with.) It strikes me that if the feds really give a shit about depression and teens they might focus on finding out exactly how many teens are depressed and why — and whether said depression is truly clinical or just natural, as in, to be expected during adolescence (and, for that matter, during life). Still, it seems that interests them not at all. But sky falling predictions are clearly of interest — according to the ONDCP, pot smoking increases by 40% the risk that a person (teen) will develop other “mental disorders.”
“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 told the Associated Press. “Find out what’s wrong.”
This article appears in May 9 • 2008.