Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug among adolescents.1 The replacement of tobacco in cigars with marijuana (also referred to by the slang term "blunts") provides a delivery mechanism for marijuana; moreover, the use of blunts among adolescents has been associated with male gender, living in a metropolitan area, lower grade point average, and truancy. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) includes questions on the use of marijuana and blunts. Respondents who reported lifetime use of marijuana or blunts were asked to report when they last used these substances, including whether they used them in the 30 days prior to being interviewed (i.e., in the past month). Blunt use is defined as smoking part or all of a cigar with marijuana in it.
NSDUH also includes questions about academic characteristics of youths aged 12 to 17 enrolled in school. Youths aged 12 to 17 who reported being enrolled in school during the past year were asked about their average grades during the last semester or grading period. In addition, youths who were enrolled full time in the past 30 days were asked whether they skipped school in the past month.
This report focuses on past month marijuana and blunt use among youths aged 12 to 17. Data are presented by demographic and academic characteristics. All findings are based on data from the 2005 NSDUH.
Past month use of marijuana was related to academic characteristics. Among youths aged 12 to 17 who were enrolled in school in the past year, those with higher grade averages were less likely to have used marijuana in the past month than those with lower grade averages. For example, 17.9 percent of students with a past semester grade average of D or lower used marijuana in the past month compared with 3.1 percent of students with an A average. Among youths aged 12 to 17 who were full-time students during the month before the survey, those who skipped school were almost 4 times as likely as those who did not skip school to have used marijuana in the past month (17.6 vs. 4.7 percent).
