Marijuana

Term Paper Title	Marijuana
# of Words	597
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	2.39

Marijuana

     The statistic I chose to analyze was something I pulled from the
Washington Post about a month ago.  The article stated that "68% of high school
seniors admitted to trying marijuana at least once during their high school
career."  The article was about the resurfacing drug problem among the teenage
age group. It was aimed at an audience of parents and others who could be
affected by such an alarming rate.

     A number of thoughts crossed my mind when I read this statistic.  My
first thought was to question where the Washington Post had surveyed.  As a
resident of the metropolitan DC area, I am aware of the differences between the
outer suburbs and DC itself.  If the Post had focused on the DC area I would be
able to believe the statistic much more than if they had focused on the
surrounding area.  Another thought was whether the Post had interviewed more
boys than girls or vice versa.  Racial makeup of those involved in the study was
another issue that the Post did not elaborate on.  I also felt it relevant to
ask what the percentage of that initial 68% were seniors who had only tried it
once.  I think the percentage would drop significantly if the Post changed the
wording from "tried it once" to "used multiple times".

     Knowing the geographic location of those surveyed would be useful in a
number of ways.  First, it would ease the fears of parents not living in the
troubled areas.  More importantly, it would allow school officials, drug
enforcement officials, drug counselors, etc., to focus their attention and dime
to those specific areas with the biggest problem.  Are we looking at inner-city
youth or are we looking at suburban youth.  It makes a difference as to how you
approach the problem.  Which station do you advertise on?  Where does the local
government allocate extra funding for dr...

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