Marijuana, Ecstasy, Methamphetamine Use Climbing In US – Drug use in America has risen over the past year, and has reached its highest level of usage in decades. The drugs which are causing the most concern are marijuana, ecstasy and and methamphetamine.
The cause of this, according to the study, was the accepted use of marijuana and ecstasy by society, which was brought on by the media with its more liberal reports on legalizing marijuana and medicinal marijuana.
Marijuana use in those aged 12 and over grew to about 8.7 in 2009, after being 7.3% the year before, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, who made the report.
“The results of the survey, to say the least, are very troubling,” Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said during a morning news conference Thursday.
Many younger people do not view drugs such as marijuana as anything too harmful, and worth experimenting with. When people do not view something as harmful, such as a drug, then its use is more likely to be raised in line with this belief.
Monthly use of ecstasy climbed from 555,000 in 2008 to 760,000 in 2009. The number of methamphetamine users shot up, too, from 314,000 to 502,000 over the year, according to the report.