Let This Sink In
According to a JAMA Pediatrics study published last year, one in four US children is growing up with at least one parent who has a substance use disorder. ONE IN FOUR…
For a third of those children, or about one child in 12, at least one parent had “cannabis use disorder.” That’s about six million children.
IF as a country we decide we want ADULTS to be able to use marijuana, then the minimum legal age to do so should be 25. I feel the same way about alcohol consumption.
Call me an old fogy, but a nation of impaired adults does not bode well for that nation. In 2017, the National Institute on Drug Abuse estimated the annual cost to the nation of substance abuse to be more than $740 billion. That was about 4 percent of 2017 US GDP. That amount was also equivalent to $2,200 for every man, woman and child in the US.
Far too many people in the US have abandoned the notion that they have any responsibility for their behavior. “The government will/should take care of everyone. Government exists to subsidize our lifestyles.” That attitude, my friends, is how a nation self-destructs.
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#LetThisSinkIn
#ScourgeOfDrugAbuse
Don't know what we can do to curb illicit drug use (and use of alcohol) except pass tough laws and enforce them. I think we have lost the will to do anything that requires real effort.
I would suspect that there has always been a pretty high rate of substance abuse, there is just more attention being paid to it lately.Even 40 years ago, a couple drinks with lunch was considered "normal" Marijuana use has gone up, but alcohol use is decreasing these days.. If you go back 140 years you had medicines with morphine, cannibals and alcohol being sold over the counter. Even Coca cola had cocaine in the recipe(might explain why great grandad was able to get so much done in a days work)
But yeah, a nation of drunks and burnouts doesn't bode well for the future.