420
Founder
The Number Of People Still Using Marijuana In Their 30s And 40s Is Escalating And Their Children Are Following Suit, Writes Carmel Egan
JOY expected one of her children to experiment with cannabis. It was almost inevitable, living on Sydney's northern beaches where the drug culture is as entrenched as the pursuit of surf and sun.
She anticipated her child would be induced by a friend to take that first toke, just as she was as a schoolgirl in the 1970s.
"Those were the days of Buddha sticks," Joy says. "I can't even remember how we used them." Two of Joy's four children became regular cannabis users between the ages of 15 and 17. Both are now in their 20s and although one is an occasional user, Joy is confident his dalliance will have no long-term effect. But the 46-year-old, middle-class mum didn't tell her children of her own teenage experiences until years later. "It just hadn't come up in conversation," she says.
Lana Coleman plans a different approach. She will wait for her 10-year-old daughter to ask but plans to tell all. In anticipation of that day Coleman, also from Sydney's northern beaches, enrolled in a Parents Prepared course at the Manly Drug Education Centre. "Kids are going to experiment, you need to give them information," she says.
Coleman's first puff was with a boyfriend in the company of a group of older children when she was 13. She sees it now as a fairly typical teenage adventure, along with sneaking into pubs for an underage drink. It caused her no harm and her interest faded.
I have a small percentage of friends who are still using it," says Coleman, soon to turn 40. "Some are still hooked."
The National Drug Strategy Household Survey 2004 ( a federal Government initiative ) identified a significant change in marijuana use among 30 and 40-year-olds. Rather than dropping off dramatically as it had in the past, the number of people still using marijuana in their 30s and 40s is escalating.
"I come from a generation at university in the '70s where everybody smoked," says David Murray, chief executive officer of Melbourne's Young People's Substance Abuse Service. "A lot of my friends would have smoked well into their 40s, just as they might have a glass of red at dinner. In baby boomers there is a cultural association with cannabis and an attitude that [smoking it] is a harmless event."
The household survey found 15.9 per cent of 30 to 39-year-olds and 8.7 per cent of 40 to 49-year-olds had used the illicit drug in the past 12 months.
The concern is that a growing number of Australian adults continue to use cannabis at an age when they are likely to be parents of teenagers.
"The belief is that [parental use] is going to have an impact on what their children do," says Paul Dillon of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre. "I often get parents coming up saying they use occasionally. They don't promote it, but if they had to choose they would prefer their children use cannabis to amphetamines, which they don't understand. The sad part for me is that what we are seeing with the young is very different patterns of cannabis use from their parents. They are smoking more, smoking more often, smoking stronger parts of the plants and they are doing it in a riskier way with bongs instead of joints."
Cannabis is the most commonly reported illicit drug used by 12 to 19-year-olds, with 13.5 per cent having used it in the past 12 months, according to the household study.
Another 2004 national report for the federal Government analysed data collected from 23,000 secondary students at 363 schools. It found 25 per cent of 12 to 17-year-olds had used cannabis at least once in their lives. Thirty-nine per cent of 16 to 17-year-olds had tried it.
A family history of drug-taking is known to have a significant influence on juvenile offenders' harmful alcohol, cannabis, heroin or amphetamine habits, although there are usually a multiplicity of other causes.
"Seven out of 10 kids are introduced to drugs by somebody they know. If it is their parents then you are taking away some of the prohibitions: you expect mum and dad to say no to you," says Moses Abbatangelo, acting CEO of Odyssey Institute of Studies. "The earlier the onset of drug use the more likely there will be problems. Naturally it flows that if mum and day say OK then maybe everybody else is wrong."
It is the method, quantity and frequency that is most alarming in the young, particularly as evidence mounts of the impact of heavy use on still-developing brains.
Many professionals believe evidence is firming of an association between marijuana use and schizophrenia or anxiety and depression in people with a predisposition -- although some dispute a causal link.
The release last month of the landmark report into Australia's deteriorating state of mental health provision, Not for Service, highlighted the issue when co-author Ian Hickie warned drug-using parents of a false sense of security about children and cannabis.
"Cannabis would be the best example of something that's assumed by parents and teenagers themselves to be not particularly harmful," Hickie says. "It's often portrayed as similar to alcohol.
"If parents continue to smoke, their kids smoke. If parents are significant users of alcohol or other drugs, their kids use at much higher rates."
Former premier of Victoria and now chairman of Beyond Blue Jeff Kennett once advocated decriminalisation of marijuana before backing away from it. "We haven't as a community given cannabis smoking -- or being opposed to cannabis smoking -- a high enough priority," Kennett says in response to the Not For Service report. "It has almost been a leisure drug. It's almost been a hip thing to do so no one has given it a priority above the norm.
"Because we are all different it could change significantly the level of psychosis within an individual and that could lead to depression."
Yet, the cannabis debate remains polarised. On one side are the anti-drugs campaigners and conservative politicians such as federal parliamentary secretary for health Chris Pyne, who exhorts state governments to toughen up their policing of cannabis.
On the other side health are professionals and researchers such as John Toumbourou, of the Centre for Adolescent Health, at the University of Melbourne, who believes Australia's open attitude to cannabis use is paying dividends. Toumbourou argues the Australian approach to education and counselling ahead of punishment of first-time offenders has been successful in slowing the growth in drug use among young people.
Illicit drug use is less in Australia compared with the US. While the household survey found 13.5 per cent of 15 to 17-year-old Australians used cannabis in the past 12 months, the figure is 23 per cent in the US. "The important point is a tolerant attitude [of parents to drugs] is a two-edged sword," Toumbourou says. "A parental history of drug use is reported more frequently in our studies, but in the US a more hardline view results in a disaffection among drug users. The tolerant community and family attitude to cannabis is one of the differences between us and the US. The great strength is that it allows open debate and discussion.
"We are less likely to suspend children from school in Australia for cannabis use or other problems. In the US they are thrown out and that probably creates an alien subculture. And there has been a move in the past five years of clever policing using diversion. So in the first instance they may go in for counselling.
"But many teenagers we know are actually using the substance daily on an ongoing basis and may continue that for some years and that's the pattern of use which appears to be much more problematic in terms of depression and suicide. I agree with Chris Pyne that research is firming that cannabis is contributing to mental health but if we go in the direction of using the law to crack down we will create a greater problem."
Toumbourou's advice to a parent who has used cannabis in the past is to read the research, be frank and upfront and open with your children. Discuss the risks and the potential for health risks -- it is the reason Australians have reduced their cigarette smoking from 75 per cent of the post-World War II population to 17 per cent today.
It would not be hypocritical of parents to say they were unaware of the risks a generation ago and that theirs was uninformed behaviour. "But you are playing russian roulette if you are a parent who encourages cannabis use," he says. "If you have an addiction as your children enter adolescence it is time to consider doing something about it."
Source: Australian, The (Australia)
Copyright: 2005sThe Australian
Contact: https://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/files/aus_letters.htm
Website: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/
JOY expected one of her children to experiment with cannabis. It was almost inevitable, living on Sydney's northern beaches where the drug culture is as entrenched as the pursuit of surf and sun.
She anticipated her child would be induced by a friend to take that first toke, just as she was as a schoolgirl in the 1970s.
"Those were the days of Buddha sticks," Joy says. "I can't even remember how we used them." Two of Joy's four children became regular cannabis users between the ages of 15 and 17. Both are now in their 20s and although one is an occasional user, Joy is confident his dalliance will have no long-term effect. But the 46-year-old, middle-class mum didn't tell her children of her own teenage experiences until years later. "It just hadn't come up in conversation," she says.
Lana Coleman plans a different approach. She will wait for her 10-year-old daughter to ask but plans to tell all. In anticipation of that day Coleman, also from Sydney's northern beaches, enrolled in a Parents Prepared course at the Manly Drug Education Centre. "Kids are going to experiment, you need to give them information," she says.
Coleman's first puff was with a boyfriend in the company of a group of older children when she was 13. She sees it now as a fairly typical teenage adventure, along with sneaking into pubs for an underage drink. It caused her no harm and her interest faded.
I have a small percentage of friends who are still using it," says Coleman, soon to turn 40. "Some are still hooked."
The National Drug Strategy Household Survey 2004 ( a federal Government initiative ) identified a significant change in marijuana use among 30 and 40-year-olds. Rather than dropping off dramatically as it had in the past, the number of people still using marijuana in their 30s and 40s is escalating.
"I come from a generation at university in the '70s where everybody smoked," says David Murray, chief executive officer of Melbourne's Young People's Substance Abuse Service. "A lot of my friends would have smoked well into their 40s, just as they might have a glass of red at dinner. In baby boomers there is a cultural association with cannabis and an attitude that [smoking it] is a harmless event."
The household survey found 15.9 per cent of 30 to 39-year-olds and 8.7 per cent of 40 to 49-year-olds had used the illicit drug in the past 12 months.
The concern is that a growing number of Australian adults continue to use cannabis at an age when they are likely to be parents of teenagers.
"The belief is that [parental use] is going to have an impact on what their children do," says Paul Dillon of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre. "I often get parents coming up saying they use occasionally. They don't promote it, but if they had to choose they would prefer their children use cannabis to amphetamines, which they don't understand. The sad part for me is that what we are seeing with the young is very different patterns of cannabis use from their parents. They are smoking more, smoking more often, smoking stronger parts of the plants and they are doing it in a riskier way with bongs instead of joints."
Cannabis is the most commonly reported illicit drug used by 12 to 19-year-olds, with 13.5 per cent having used it in the past 12 months, according to the household study.
Another 2004 national report for the federal Government analysed data collected from 23,000 secondary students at 363 schools. It found 25 per cent of 12 to 17-year-olds had used cannabis at least once in their lives. Thirty-nine per cent of 16 to 17-year-olds had tried it.
A family history of drug-taking is known to have a significant influence on juvenile offenders' harmful alcohol, cannabis, heroin or amphetamine habits, although there are usually a multiplicity of other causes.
"Seven out of 10 kids are introduced to drugs by somebody they know. If it is their parents then you are taking away some of the prohibitions: you expect mum and dad to say no to you," says Moses Abbatangelo, acting CEO of Odyssey Institute of Studies. "The earlier the onset of drug use the more likely there will be problems. Naturally it flows that if mum and day say OK then maybe everybody else is wrong."
It is the method, quantity and frequency that is most alarming in the young, particularly as evidence mounts of the impact of heavy use on still-developing brains.
Many professionals believe evidence is firming of an association between marijuana use and schizophrenia or anxiety and depression in people with a predisposition -- although some dispute a causal link.
The release last month of the landmark report into Australia's deteriorating state of mental health provision, Not for Service, highlighted the issue when co-author Ian Hickie warned drug-using parents of a false sense of security about children and cannabis.
"Cannabis would be the best example of something that's assumed by parents and teenagers themselves to be not particularly harmful," Hickie says. "It's often portrayed as similar to alcohol.
"If parents continue to smoke, their kids smoke. If parents are significant users of alcohol or other drugs, their kids use at much higher rates."
Former premier of Victoria and now chairman of Beyond Blue Jeff Kennett once advocated decriminalisation of marijuana before backing away from it. "We haven't as a community given cannabis smoking -- or being opposed to cannabis smoking -- a high enough priority," Kennett says in response to the Not For Service report. "It has almost been a leisure drug. It's almost been a hip thing to do so no one has given it a priority above the norm.
"Because we are all different it could change significantly the level of psychosis within an individual and that could lead to depression."
Yet, the cannabis debate remains polarised. On one side are the anti-drugs campaigners and conservative politicians such as federal parliamentary secretary for health Chris Pyne, who exhorts state governments to toughen up their policing of cannabis.
On the other side health are professionals and researchers such as John Toumbourou, of the Centre for Adolescent Health, at the University of Melbourne, who believes Australia's open attitude to cannabis use is paying dividends. Toumbourou argues the Australian approach to education and counselling ahead of punishment of first-time offenders has been successful in slowing the growth in drug use among young people.
Illicit drug use is less in Australia compared with the US. While the household survey found 13.5 per cent of 15 to 17-year-old Australians used cannabis in the past 12 months, the figure is 23 per cent in the US. "The important point is a tolerant attitude [of parents to drugs] is a two-edged sword," Toumbourou says. "A parental history of drug use is reported more frequently in our studies, but in the US a more hardline view results in a disaffection among drug users. The tolerant community and family attitude to cannabis is one of the differences between us and the US. The great strength is that it allows open debate and discussion.
"We are less likely to suspend children from school in Australia for cannabis use or other problems. In the US they are thrown out and that probably creates an alien subculture. And there has been a move in the past five years of clever policing using diversion. So in the first instance they may go in for counselling.
"But many teenagers we know are actually using the substance daily on an ongoing basis and may continue that for some years and that's the pattern of use which appears to be much more problematic in terms of depression and suicide. I agree with Chris Pyne that research is firming that cannabis is contributing to mental health but if we go in the direction of using the law to crack down we will create a greater problem."
Toumbourou's advice to a parent who has used cannabis in the past is to read the research, be frank and upfront and open with your children. Discuss the risks and the potential for health risks -- it is the reason Australians have reduced their cigarette smoking from 75 per cent of the post-World War II population to 17 per cent today.
It would not be hypocritical of parents to say they were unaware of the risks a generation ago and that theirs was uninformed behaviour. "But you are playing russian roulette if you are a parent who encourages cannabis use," he says. "If you have an addiction as your children enter adolescence it is time to consider doing something about it."
Source: Australian, The (Australia)
Copyright: 2005sThe Australian
Contact: https://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/files/aus_letters.htm
Website: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/
