The number of young people who don't think smoking pot is dangerous has risen in the last 10 years, causing medical officials to be concerned that more adolescents will make it a habit.
The statistics came from the National Institute on Drug Use survey known as "Monitoring the Future," which records drug use and attitudes among eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders.
The percentage of adolescents who had smoked a cigarette in the last month was the lowest ever at less than 10 percent, the Los Angeles Times reported. The number was a significant drop from 16.7 percent in 2003 and 24.7 percent in 1993.
Numbers regarding marijuana were more troubling due to the connection between "softening attitudes and increased use of marijuana," the agency said. According to the survey, 39.5 percent of 12th-graders believed regular marijuana use was harmful, compared with 44.1 percent last year.
Daily marijuana use among seniors increased to 6.5 percent, a rise from 6 percent in 2003 and 2.4 percent in 1993, while 4 percent of 10th-graders reported daily use as well.
Officials noted that the marijuana use was the highest in thirty or so years.
"The number that concerns me in particular is the rate of daily or near daily use," said Dr. Wilson Compton, deputy director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a part of the National Institutes of Health. "This rate is as high as we've seen since the early '80s."
The drug itself has become more potent as well, according to Dr. Nora Volkow, the drug abuse institute's director, who stipulated that daily use of marijuana has "stronger effects on a developing teen brain than it did 10 or 20 years ago."
In a statement, Volkow said, "The children whose experimentation leads to regular use are setting themselves up for declines in IQ and diminished ability for success in life."
The survey also found that the use of other drugs dropped in the same period, fewer students abusing such prescription drugs as Adderall and Ritalin.
See Now: OnePlus 6: How Different Will It Be From OnePlus 5?
