Pubdate: Wed, 15 Feb 2012
Source: Culpeper Star-Exponent (VA)
Copyright: 2012 Culpeper Star-Exponent
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/QTbG60wN
Website: http://www.starexponent.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1946
Author: Mark Wilkie, Columnist, Culpeper Star Exponent 

ANOTHER SLAP IN THE FACE FROM THE CHANGING TIMES

A recent national survey conducted among 8th-10th grade public school
students indicated that kids within that age group are smoking
marijuana more but consuming alcohol less. I was a bit skeptical of
the findings, due perhaps not so much to the results, but because I
questioned the need to survey children that young to begin with.
Seemed a little superfluous to me.

So I conducted a small survey of my own recently among kids I know and
much to my disappointed surprise it turns out I was wrong and the
survey was right: Apparently even seventh-graders are smoking pot in
abundance these days. That's 12-year olds getting their hands on
either imported or home-grown bud and toking it up like it's no big
deal.

Now granted, I'd rather have kids I care about taking a few hits on a
little weed than knocking back a six-pack of beer, or chugging down a
pint of vodka, or certainly snorting cocaine - but the fact that
children who haven't even hit puberty yet are already partying like
college students is a bit disturbing to me to say the least.

Never mind that they have such easy access to it - what bothers me
most is, why would they even want to try it to begin with? What have
we done to the societal-cultural stigma of youth that makes our kids
in such a hurry to grow up?

When I was 13, I honestly doubt if I'd ever even heard the word
marijuana. Now it's the subject of entire hip, funny, popular movies,
characters on TV sitcoms are smoking it, and it's a huge part of the
contemporary music culture, and thus something made to seem cool and
almost necessary in order to fit in.

Medicinal marijuana is certainly a relevant matter and will more than
likely someday soon be an accepted part of our health care system. And
it's just as likely that recreational marijuana will also someday be
legalized and sold in controlled and regulated circumstances much like
tobacco and alcohol today.

But I still wouldn't want my 13-year-old son or daughter smoking the
stuff so they can get high while playing their latest video game.

When I was in the seventh-grade, all I wanted to do was play sports,
ride my bike, eat junk food, watch TV, and hang out with my friends.
The worst thing we ever did was sneak a peek at a Playboy magazine and
pretend we'd even know what to do with a naked girl.

Smoking pot? That was for grown-up, weirdo hippies to do, and I had no
desire whatsoever to grow up. I wanted to stay young as long as I
could. Innocence was something to hang on to.

I know things are different now. The whole world is more
sophisticated, and the media puts everything right in our face.

Kids have sophisticated older siblings telling them all about the
things they're doing with their sophisticated older friends, and I
know they want to be just like them - cool, and mature, and ready for
the world.

And I know there's very little we can do about it, short of locking
them in their rooms, confiscating their communication devices, and
turning off the electricity.

I just don't like it. And I'm not even a parent.

I can't imagine what those of you who are must be going through as you
watch your kids racing toward those middle school years, coming at you
faster and faster.

Smells like teen spirit.

Time machine anyone? 
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MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.