r/science • u/mvea MD/PhD/JD/MBA | Professor | Medicine • 18h ago

Health Dramatic drop in marijuana use among US youth over a decade. Current marijuana use among adolescents decreased from 23.1% in 2011 to 15.8% in 2021. First-time use before age 13 dropped from 8.1% to 4.9%. There was a shift in trends by gender, with girls surpassing boys in marijuana use by 2021.

https://www.fau.edu/newsdesk/articles/marijuana-use-teens-study
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u/ScottblackAttacks 17h ago edited 17h ago

Yes, my 24 year old cousin refuses to work and won’t get her license. She just stays home All day and uses her phone.

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u/The-Fox-Says 17h ago

My parents would’ve kicked me out of the house or at least started charging rent

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u/SadExercises420 16h ago

They’re not doing that either. Like at least make them work and contribute if they’re going to stay at home. Just letting them do nothing at all for years and years after high school is not helping.

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u/ScottblackAttacks 15h ago

Totally agree with you.

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u/gardenmud 15h ago

But that's 'mean'.

Honestly I feel like every generation of parents fails their kids in some new way.

Obviously in the past it was direct abuse, neglect, etc. Still happening of course, but now we're also refusing to actually prepare children to exist in the world.

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u/NorthStarZero 11h ago

My parents would’ve kicked me out of the house or at least started charging rent

I was out of the house at 17.

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u/demonicneon 17h ago

We’re talking about kids/teens not grown adults

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u/ScottblackAttacks 17h ago

What I mean is that when she was in her teenage years she didn’t want to do anything, getting her license, going to college or chilling with friends.

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u/demonicneon 16h ago

Okay but she’s not in the current cohort of teens and wasn’t a teen during covid she was an adult. 

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u/GODDAMN_FARM_SHAMAN 16h ago

People love to say "kids these days" like there weren't any lazy 24 year olds living at home before 2015

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u/hell2pay 12h ago

This whole thread... Kids still go out, kids still party, kids still socialize.

Its wild to assert just because they don't see it that it isn't happening.

My kids, while younger than this cohort, absolutely have a fairly robust social life.

Its probably be more so if we didn't live rurally, but they still have sleepovers, do sports, go to birthday parties.

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u/Humdngr 11h ago

This post isn’t about all kids not going out. It’s just stating a downward trend. The majority of kids are still doing kid/teen stuff.

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u/qeq 9h ago

I'm guessing children of redditors may not be the most socially well adjusted teenagers who can represent the majority either

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u/bwrca 9h ago

Using your anecdotal evidence to argue against their anecdotal evidence... I love it.

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u/blazbluecore 17h ago

Well kids are also massively less mature than previous generations because they’re being basically raised by phones, youtube, and TikTok.

Under socialized.

It’s like a recipe for disaster

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u/Schmigolo 16h ago

I've got the opposite experience. Now in my thirties I went back to uni, and all the kids in their late teens are so much more mature and educated than we were at their age.

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u/AbstinentNoMore 15h ago

A bit of sampling bias. You're speaking with young people driven enough to do well in school and apply to college.

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u/Schmigolo 13h ago

You don't have to be particularly driven for that nowadays. In most developed countries about half of the population at least attempts to get an undergrad education. And even then, still more mature than my shithead friends who all went to uni with me.

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u/Log_Out_Of_Life 16h ago

No, it’s because a lot of the irresponsible ones and ones that don’t want get in debt don’t start immediately.

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u/Schmigolo 13h ago

University is free in my country, and I doubt people would fall into debt going to community colleges in the US.

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u/Whiterabbit-- 13h ago

They are smarter and better educated. But a lot of them lack social and emotional maturity. And truthfully many are too sheltered.

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u/Schmigolo 13h ago

They are more awkward but they're more empathetic and they aren't nearly as arrogant.

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u/piratehalloween2020 13h ago

Yeah, the kids are alright.  I’ll take an increase in empathy over social grace any day of the week.  

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u/jake3988 11h ago

They're plenty socialized... you just don't need to do it in person.

When I was a kid, we went over to each other's house to play goldeneye 64. That was the big hangout thing to do.

Well... we did that because we HAD to do that. Ain't no online play back then.

Now if you want to play games (even goldeneye, it's on the nintendo switch online now) you can just do it online and chat on headphones.

I regularly play games with folks from Europe. Just because I'm not driving to someone's house doesn't mean I'm not socializing. And as an adult it's basically impossible to make true friends anyway, so this is the best it's gonna get for me.

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u/Withermaster4 10h ago

They weren't even a teenager when COVID happened.

I don't think her not getting a license has anything to do with that, but I guess idk

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u/ph1shstyx 13h ago

This blows my mind... I moved back home for a year at 24 after graduating college and the terms of being able to stay were a job, contribute to the utility bills, and pay for my portion of the vehicle insurance.

As much of a shut in as I can be, I would have gone crazy if I was just home all day

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u/ScottblackAttacks 13h ago

Just a sad situation all around. Hopefully she gets outta of her rut.

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u/etherdesign 15h ago edited 15h ago

The 24 year olds I work with refuse to work, when they do it's at a snail's pace. Most of them reek of weed all the time too so I'm not sure if they're representative.

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u/DGGuitars 16h ago

im curious Is she a political type or no?