The Dasis Report: Adolescent Treatment Admissions: 1992 and 2002
The Drug and Alcohol Services Information System, "The DASIS Report: Adolescent Treatment Admissions: 1992-2002," Office of Applied Studies, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (October 15, 2004), 3.
Government officials regularly point to increasing numbers of teens in treatment for marijuana abuse or dependence as alarming evidence of marijuana's dangers. What they generally don't say -- but this U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report makes clear -- is that this growth has been fueled almost entirely by arrests. That is, kids get arrested for marijuana, are offered a choice of treatment or jail, and understandably choose treatment. Then the government counts this "alarming rise" in teen marijuana treatment as "proof" that marijuana is addictive. (See also, "Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) Highlights -- 2006" below)
Full text available for free at: http://oas.samhsa.gov/2k4/youthTX/youthTX.cfm
