Cannabis consumption has dropped significantly

Cannabis consumption of adolescents decreased significantly

05/05/2011

The cannabis consumption among young people in Germany is declining. This is reported by the Federal Center for Health Education (BZgA) with reference to its own, representative study on the cannabis consumption of adolescents in Cologne. Although fewer adolescents use cannabis than in previous years, a third of respondents aged 18 to 25 years still said they had tried cannabis before.

The Federal Center for Health Education evaluates the decline in cannabis consumption as a pleasing signal and stated that this was mainly due to the unpopularity of smoking. Smoking is simply out and most of the young people who do not smoke, do not try cannabis, emphasized the spokeswoman for the BZgA, Julia Jakob.

A quarter of teenagers have already tried cannabis
To determine the cannabis consumption of young people, the BZgA interviewed 7,000 young people between the ages of 12 and 25 by telephone. Only a quarter (25 percent) of the surveyed adolescents said that they had already had experience with cannabis, the BZgA explained. In 2004, however, the proportion was still one third (33 percent). In a breakdown by age group, almost one in ten of the 14- to 17-year-olds and one in three of the 18- to 25-year-olds already tried cannabis, the BZgA said. This means that the proportion of cannabis consumers among both 12- to 17-year-olds and 18- to 25-year-olds has fallen by around 8 percent since 2004.

Hardly any adolescents regularly consume cannabis
However, very few adolescents regularly consume marijuana or hashish. Only 0.6 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds and 3 percent of 18- to 25-year-olds reported having used cannabis more than ten times in the past twelve months, said the spokeswoman for the BZgA. In addition, male adolescents would be more likely to try cannabis more often than females (5 percent vs. 1.4 percent), according to the latest study. On the other hand, it is not taken into account whether or not the young people are using the substitute products of the so-called herbal mixtures sold under ever-changing names instead of the prohibited marijuana. These contain - unlike the name promises - mostly synthetic substances that are supposed to have a similar effect as THC, but can cause significant health problems. To date, the herbal mixtures may be freely sold in various forms.

Beware of cannabis consumption
Despite the decline, experiences of cannabis use among adolescents in Germany are still relatively widespread. However, unlike tobacco or alcohol, consumers are always in a legal gray area, because although consumption is not punishable, the possession and the transfer can be very well penalized. As long as there is no change in the legislation, the young people should therefore not get caught in cannabis consumption. Anyway, according to the experts, caution should be exercised when smoking cannabis, as the contained THC has a particularly strong effect on the metabolism of adolescents in the developmental phase and in some cases can cause considerable mental health problems. Also, the regular use of cannabis is often accompanied by a corresponding listlessness, by which sufferers neglect their school career extremely and thus leave themselves for the rest of their lives significant obstacles in the way. (Fp)

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Image: Henning Hraban Ramm