--- title: More teens are smoking pot description: While use of drugs such as cocaine or methamphetamine has declined among U.S. teens, more adolescents are smoking marijuana, according to the results of an... canonical: https://time.com/archive/7144953/more-teens-are-smoking-pot/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2009-12-14T22:31:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-16T11:47:37.907Z article:section: Health og:title: More teens are smoking pot og:description: While use of drugs such as cocaine or methamphetamine has declined among U.S. teens, more adolescents are smoking marijuana, according to the results of an... og:url: https://time.com/archive/7144953/more-teens-are-smoking-pot/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: More teens are smoking pot twitter:description: While use of drugs such as cocaine or methamphetamine has declined among U.S. teens, more adolescents are smoking marijuana, according to the results of an... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Health](/section/health/) # More teens are smoking pot > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, twice weekly), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=16d9394b-a418-4bff-999a-b64808412196&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Dec 14, 2009 10:31 PM UTC by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Dec 14, 2009 10:31 PM UTC The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned hospitals and health care workers of a national shortage of intravenous (IV) saline solution, and urged doctors to conserve existing supplies. The agency is working with three manufacturers to address problem and provide alternatives if needed. Millions of bags of the solution, which are essential for hydrating patients, and are also critical for cleansing the blood of dialysis patients, are used nationwide each week. The Washington Post reports that manufacturers told the FDA last year that they were expecting delays in filling hospitals' orders after some plant shutdowns for routine inspection and upgrades. The IV solution cannot be replaced with other forms of saline because it is specifically designed to be administered by injection; in a letter to health care providers, the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists warned that saline solutions used for irrigation are "not approved for injection because it may have higher levels of particulates." MORE: Inside America’s Drug Shortage The FDA says the shortage was triggered by several factors, including delays in delivery and increased demand by hospitals to treat flu patients. Some healthcare providers are asking staff to find ways to conserve the IV solutions by using smaller bags, while others are using alternatives such as oral hydration fluids. Valerie Jensen, an associate director of the drug shortages program at the FDA told The Washington Post that no hospitals have actually run out of saline, they are "still reporting that they may only have a few days supply.” The agency is hoping the three major manufacturers of the product -- Baxter Healthcare Corp., B.Braun Medical Inc., and Hospira Inc. -- will be able to meet the increased demand in coming weeks. \[The Washington Post\] FDA is working with manufacturers to maintain the supply While use of drugs such as cocaine or methamphetamine has declined among U.S. teens, more adolescents are smoking marijuana, according to the results of an annual survey funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Researchers at the University of Michigan surveyed some 47,000 eighth-graders, high school sophomores and high school seniors, and found that across all three groups, marijuana use was up. In the 2009 study, 11.8% of eighth-graders reported smoking pot, compared with 10.9% the year before, 26.7% of tenth-graders said they smoked pot, compared with 23.9% in 2008, and 32.8% of 12th-graders, compared with 32.4% the previous year. more Public health officials, including White House drug czar Gil Kerlikowske, attribute the uptick in marijuana use to less education about the dangers of smoking pot, and say that the alarming trend underscores the need for parents and authorities to increase anti-drug efforts. Survey results show that adolescents’ perceptions of the danger of using marijuana have changed significantly over the years—in 2004, 50.5% of eighth grade students believed occasionally smoking pot posed “great risk” to their health; 44.8% of eighth-graders felt that way this year. Even as kids are smoking more pot, they seem to be smoking slightly fewer cigarettes. According to the 2009 study results, 11.2% of high school seniors said they smoked cigarettes every day, down from 11.4% in 2008\. Researchers attribute the slight drop in smoking rates to the fact that fewer kids are [lighting up](http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20091214-710428.html) in the first place. Thirteen years ago, 49% of eight graders said they’d tried smoking; this year, just 20% reported trying cigarettes. While public health experts are pleased with the decline in smoking, advocates for marijuana legalization point to both the uptick in pot smoking and the success of anti-tobacco efforts targeted at teens as evidence that the time has come for a new approach to marijuana regulation. As Bruce Mirkin, a spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, told the [Associated Press](http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5icASgV4A9dMhkWmsFndmLG2zBX7AD9CJALS00): --- > “” --- Yet as teens’ attitudes about cigarettes and marijuana have changed, so too has their access to—and abuse of—[prescription drugs](http://wellness.blogs.time.com/2009/08/28/for-teens-prescription-drugs-are-easy-to-come-by/). Nearly 5% of 12th graders reported using OxyContin for non-medical reasons this year, a slightly higher proportion than last year, and nearly 10% of high school seniors reported using the painkiller Vicodin for non-medical reasons as well, a figure that is consistent with rates from 2008 and suggests that the problem continues, researchers say. Meanwhile, teen use of cocaine and methamphetamine had dropped somewhat: 3.4% of 12th graders reported using cocaine in 2009, down from 4.4% in 2008. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7144953/more-teens-are-smoking-pot/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7144953/more-teens-are-smoking-pot/"},"headline":"More teens are smoking pot","datePublished":"2009-12-14T22:31:58.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-16T11:47:37.907Z","description":"While use of drugs such as cocaine or methamphetamine has declined among U.S. teens, more adolescents are smoking marijuana, according to the results of an...","url":"https://time.com/archive/7144953/more-teens-are-smoking-pot/","keywords":["Marijuana","Pot","Teens","Smoking","adolescents"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/7144953/more-teens-are-smoking-pot/","name":"More teens are smoking pot"}}]}] ```