“Marijuana Abuse: Age of Initiation, Pleasure of Response Foreshadow Young Adult Outcome” by Robin Eisner is from The National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) issue of vol. 19 no 5 January 2005. In Eisner’s interviewing of several leading experts, boys and girls who are smoking marijuana at 13 is likely to earn less money as a young adult than peers who aren’t abusing the drug. As a result, an adolescent who smokes less marijuana than a friend but enjoys the experience more is likelier to be addicted to the drug at 21. The bad news is that if you start marijuana use by age 13, even if you eventually decrease your usage, you are likely to have a lower income and lower level of schooling by age 29. The good news is that 45 percent of the youths in our sample did not use marijuana between adolescence and emerging adulthood.
Eisner interviewed Dr. Phyllis L. Ellickson and colleagues at the RAND Corporation Santa Monica, California surveyed 5,800 adolescents from 30 school sin California and Oregon about their marijuana use between ages 13 and 23. A statistical analysis of the responses revealed four distinct patterns related to marijuana abuse. Approximately 45 percent did not smoke marijuana. The researchers called these youths Abstainers. Of those who did smoke marijuana: 1) Some 5 percent were considered Early High Users – teens who smoked marijuana from once a week to monthly at age 13, decreased their abuse by age 18, and as young adults smoked 3 to 10 times a year. 2) About 17 percent were Stable Light Users – teens who smoked infrequently at age 13 and never abused the drug more that 10 times a year, on average. 3) Occasional Light Users made up 53 percent of the marijuana-abusing population. They were similar to Stable Light Users but started after age 13 and abused lower amounts than Stable Light Users throughout the study period. 4) Steady Increasers, approximately 25 percent of the abusers, started after age 13 and increased their usage during the study period.
Eisner call to write is base on a growing problem among young teenagers in smoking and abusing marijuana. Eisner’s credentials are base off interviews and researches from various sources, personnel and being an employee of the National Institute of Drug Abuse. Eisner’s purpose for writing is to explain the growing issue of marijuana use among boys and girl from adolescent to young adulthood. The growing body of research indicated that vulnerable individuals seem to experience enhanced sensitivity to a drug’s positive effects, diminished sensitivity to its negative effects, or a combination of the two responses.
Eisner’s intent is to reach young people who surf the internet and read magazines. These are the readers of today’s generation where marijuana use is more abused. Through various resources and given examples Eisner exposed how beginner use of marijuana can turn into an addicted use over time. As early stated, researchers has found that Early High Users lagged behind all other groups in earning an education. Their average yearly earnings were $20, 940, compared with about $32,000 for the Occasional Light Users and Abstainers and $28, 140 for the Steady Increasers. Both groups that initiated marijuana abuse by age 13 reported less schooling than Abstainers and those who first smoked after age 13: Early High Users and Stable Light Users did not usually go to college, while steady Increasers completed on average one year of college, Occasional Light Users almost two years of college, and Abstainers, almost three years of college. For these readers, Eisner were trying to show how marijuana can have an effect well into adulthood.
Eisner language uses seem to be from a more professional stand point. The commentary has a formal conversational tone that’s geared toward adult readers but simple enough that young readers will understand the important of marijuana abuse. Eisner effectively used research and analysis to capture the parents mind process of how marijuana could affect their children. Eisner most powerful figure of speech “A boy or girl who is smoking marijuana at 13 is likely to earn less money as a young adult than peers who aren’t abusing drugs.”
My analysis suggest that Eisner commentary was effective in getting out the word that marijuana use among adolescent to young adults is widely spread and that society should not turn a blind eye to this problem. The commentary makes available to many readers the powerful effect that drugs can have on teens today. In all Eisner does a masterful job in writing this commentary so that the word can get out about the one of many problems that’s facing our teams today.
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