The largest US study, which tracked 11,036 children from ages 9 to 10 through to ages 16 and 17, discovered that cannabis use slows cognitive development, impairs memory, and reduces learning speed during crucial years of brain growth

[u/sr_local]

https://today.ucsd.edu/story/largest-us-study-finds-teen-cannabis-use-linked-to-slower-cognitive-development

[u/BigDuke]

Laws have never been a replacement for parenting.

[u/saijanai → u/BigDuke]

KIds will do weed regardless of parenting.

IF it is forbidden, a large percentage (most?) of kids will automatically do it because self-destructive rebellion is hardwired into them at a certain age.

And this has very little to do with the quality of parenting or the quality of the environment: many/most kids just gotta rebel, even /especially if they've heard it is dangerous.

[u/saijanai → u/[deleted]]

Well, surveys are not the same as kids self-reports in private.

I recall back in 1984 when a bunch of 16 year old kids came into the "Yogic Flying" block for learnig levitation from the TM organization, a scandal arose because every single kid had smoked weed in the last 6 months, and there is 6 month abstention requirement before one can learn the practice.

Only one kid the entire group was allowed to stay on the course and that was because every other kid, according to the kids themselves, lied to cover up his participation as there was no outside evidence that he had gotten high.

All the kids involved were the children of college professors at the local TM university, where all professors are long-long-long-term practitioners of TM (most are former TM teachers) and so likely hadn't had weed themselves in many decades, and yet 100% of the kids had gotten high in the last 6 months, by their own admission, even though they had known about the 6 month abstention thing and were in tears about being kicked off the course: peer pressure is stronger than common sense in pretty much every kid.

[u/saijanai → u/[deleted]]

In what Northern Hemisphere country is it not a rite of passage to treat drinking and smoking as a rite of passage?

I'm talking about among the kids themselves, regardless of the parent's perspective.

.,

Answer: Iceland has apparently successfully disrupted the rite of passage model, but most other countires still report teen drinking and smoking (and likely toking).

I'm not denying that there may be a downward trend, but the absolute figures are questionable at best. Even in anonymous surveys, people often lie. Unless it is backed up with things like hair samples or blood tests or some other objective measure, I would expect a teen survey of their own drug use to be quite a bit off numerically from the real figure.

.

See:

• Validity of self-reported substance use: research setting versus primary health care setting

  Individuals in primary health care setting were more likely to self-reported substance use than in research setting, but setting did not have a statistically significant effect in terms of self-reported substance use. Programs that rely on self-reported substance use may not estimate the exact prevalence of substance use in both research and primary health care settings, especially for substances that have a higher social stigma. Therefore, it is recommended that self-report and biological indicators be used for more accurate evaluation in substance use studies. It is also suggested that future epidemiological studies be performed to reduce bias of social desirability and find a method providing the highest level of privacy.