There has been an alarming report that shows a great increase in marijuana use among American teens. The Federal Health officials connect this increase to the campaign of medical marijuana. This increase is greatly visible among eighth-grade pupils. This suggests that people are becoming more relaxed about the use of drugs because of the medical marijuana campaign.

It has been visible from the national survey results that the use of marijuana in eighth, 10th and 12th graders has increased across the country. Nora Volkow, MD, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse said that they have been able to see a 10 percent increase in the use of marijuana over last year.

Over the last three years, it has been noted that this year has shown the most increase in marijuana use. But according to a new data from the 46,000 students who joined the survey “Monitoring the Future,” there has been an increase of marijuana use particularly in younger students. According to Gil Kirlilwoski, the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, the marijuana numbers have been becoming greatly troubling.

The report statistics show that one in every 16 high school seniors confesses the use of marijuana every day. Three percent of 10th grade students and one percent of 8th grade students revealed that they smoke marijuana for at least four days in a week. On the other hand, 24 percent of teens admit that they have used marijuana in the past year. This has rose from the 21.5 percent three years ago.

According to Volkow, the increase that has been very visible in the use of marijuana among teens must be taken seriously. In addition, she said that the numbers match with the decrease in data that shows the perception of teens on the daily use of marijuana is risky during 2006 or2007.

Volkow, however, acknowledged that she was speculating. But she said that the loosening attitudes of teens and the widespread advertisement of medical marijuana can be blamed of the increase in marijuana use. According to Volkow, the debates over medical marijuana may have, in a way, led to the teens’ perception that marijuana is actually “beneficial not detrimental.”

According to Lloyd Johnston, PhD, a researcher of University of Michigan, the rising use of marijuana has always been predictable because teens nowadays are seeing marijuana as less risky. Johnston is the researcher who runs the surveys for the federal government. He said, “This is something we saw coming and we think will keep coming.”