青少年最先嘗試的不是喝酒和抽煙

Teens used to try alcohol first, then tobacco, and then marijuana. Now, marijuana is increasingly the first "gateway" substance for adolescents, according to new research.

從前，青少年最先嘗試的是喝酒，然后是抽煙，最后才是抽大麻。但現(xiàn)在新研究表明，大麻日益成為青少年最先嘗試的物質(zhì)。

This trend is not because teens are smoking cannabis more than ever. Rather, the change is because teens are smoking cigarettes and drinkingless while the numbers for marijuana have held steady, according to Katherine M. Keyes, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University and co-author of the new study, published this week in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

該趨勢(shì)并非是抽大麻的青少年比以往任何時(shí)候都多所造成的。相反，這一變化是因?yàn)槌闊熀秃染频那嗌倌耆藬?shù)變少，而抽大麻的青少年人數(shù)保持平穩(wěn)所致，Katherine M. Keyes表示。Keyes是哥倫比亞大學(xué)的流行病學(xué)教授，也是本周發(fā)表在《藥物與酒精依賴(lài)》期刊上的本研究的合著作者。

"As we've seen the dramatic declines in alcohol and tobacco, we haven't seen dramatic declines in marijuana, so now every year it's more and more likely that kids are starting their drug-use careers with marijuana," says Keyes. She adds that rates of teen drinking and smoking started to fall - thanks largely to widespread public health campaigns.

"喝酒和抽煙的人數(shù)急劇下降，但是抽大麻的人數(shù)并未出現(xiàn)明顯下降，所以現(xiàn)在，青少年的藥物使用越來(lái)越多的從抽大麻開(kāi)始，"Keyes說(shuō)道。她補(bǔ)充表示，喝酒和抽煙的青少年比例開(kāi)始下降--很大程度上得歸功于廣泛的公共衛(wèi)生活動(dòng)。

The authors found this by analyzing 40 years of surveys from American high school students. For example, in 1995, three-fourths of seniors who used both marijuana and cigarettes had tried cigarettes first. By 2016, only 40 percent had tried cigarettes first. Today, less than half of teens try alcohol and cigarettes before trying cannabis. (The researchers didn't look specifically at whether alcohol or tobacco came next.) Other studies have found that, in general, teens are doing fewer drugs than ever, except for marijuana.

研究作者分析了40年來(lái)有關(guān)美國(guó)高中生的調(diào)查，發(fā)現(xiàn)了這一結(jié)果。例如，在1995年，四分之三既抽煙也抽大麻的高二高三學(xué)生最先嘗試的是抽煙。到了2016年，最先嘗試抽煙的學(xué)生只有40%?，F(xiàn)如今，抽大麻前嘗試喝酒和抽煙的學(xué)生已不到一半。(研究員并未研究這些學(xué)生是先抽煙還是先喝酒。)其它研究發(fā)現(xiàn)：總體而言，使用藥物的青少年人數(shù)比以往更少，除了大麻。

Most likely, this trend will continue as marijuana becomes less stigmatized and more and more states vote to legalize the drug. Though teens aren't supposed to smoke marijuana even in the states that have fully legalized it, "it's not going out on a huge limb to suggest that marijuanais going to be more available at a lower cost to adolescents," says Keyes. "If you make a substance more available at a lower cost and easier to access, you're gonna see increases." After all, it's also illegal for kids to drink or smoke, but many easily find both alcohol and cigarettes in their own homes.

這一趨勢(shì)很有可能持續(xù)下去，因?yàn)槿藗儾辉傧褚酝菢又肛?zé)抽大麻這一行為，且越來(lái)越多的州都在投票以期使大麻合法化。雖然青少年不應(yīng)吸食大麻，即使在大麻已經(jīng)完全合法化的州也不應(yīng)該，但"這并不是說(shuō)青少年將更容易以更低的成本獲得大麻，"Keyes說(shuō)道。"如果某一物質(zhì)更容易獲得且成本更低，你就會(huì)看到使用物質(zhì)的人數(shù)有所增長(zhǎng)。"畢竟，青少年喝酒或吸煙是不合法的，但很多孩子卻能在自己家中輕易找到酒飲和香煙。