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Going Green

Recently I ran across a disturbing Associated Press article that began with this: “More teens are smoking dope, with nearly 1 in 10 lighting up at least 20 or more times a month.” A few paragraphs later, I read that “past-month usage of marijuana grew from 19 percent in 2008 to 27 percent last year.” (Read our Culture Clips story here.)

While the article doesn’t attribute a cause to this troubling trend, I’d like to take a stab at it. I think it has a lot to do with today’s entertainment.

Now, I’m not saying media is totally to blame. I’m fully aware that the roots of illegal drug use are many and varied. Peer pressure. Parental attitudes. Medical marijuana’s acceptance in a number of states. An increasing effort to decriminalize, among others.

But, actually, I’m not the first one to postulate an entertainment correlation. In fact, some research came out a few years back that said exactly what I’m saying, but you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who remembers it. Or let me put it this way: When was the last time you heard the mainstream media blame movies, TV and music for the rising use of pot among teenagers? Most likely, never!

Here’s what we reported in a Culture Clip two years ago:

The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine surveyed 959 ninth graders and found a correlation between marijuana references in music and use of the drug. Study leader Dr. Brian Primack says, "Students who listen to music with the most references to marijuana are almost twice as likely to have used the drug than their peers whose musical tastes favor songs less focused on substance use. 

Surely, someone will say, “OK, but drug references in music must be extremely rare.” Au contraire! While my experience with Plugged In indicates that pro-marijuana lyrics have declined a bit in recent years, the last time a study was conducted (2005), researchers found that 33% of the 279 most popular songs portrayed drug use, often associated with partying and sex. [ScienceDaily, 11/9/2007]

And then there are movies. I’m a big believer that what’s glamorized on the big screen sways behavior, especially in teens and preteens. While I’m not familiar with a study linking movies and pot use, there’s been quite a bit of research done on the link between cigarette smoking and film. For instance, a study published in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine in 2008 found that white U.S. teenagers who watch a lot of R rated movies are a whopping seven times more likely to start smoking than their peers with less exposure to such films.

Another nationwide study of more than 6,500 children and 532 movies revealed that 38% of smokers ages 10 to 14 started their habit after seeing it on the big screen. So, I don’t think it’s a big stretch to assume that if it works that way with tobacco, it works that way with marijuana, too.

Now to make my point that movies glamorize pot smoking, I could single out recent films such as Dark Shadows, Think Like a Man, 21 Jump Street and The Cabin in the Woods. But one could rightfully argue that films that recent wouldn’t have impacted the AP study cited above. So let’s go back just three years, and picture a 13-year-old boy or girl (now 16). What might he/she have seen on the big screen in 2009? Possibly films such as Adventureland, Youth in Revolt, It’s Complicated or Next Day Airall of which make smoking pot seem pretty cool. And if the year was 2010, there were pro-pot films like Due Date, Easy A, Hot Tub Time Machine and Kick-A–. Now that teenager could be one of nearly a third who’ve smoked dope in the past 30 days. My point is this: I care about this 16-year-old. I want this individual to find what really matters in life. But I’m worried about him/her seeking after God if blinded by the messages that life is all about getting high.

I’d love to see a day come when there’s a groundswell of public opinion saying, “Enough is enough.” In the meantime, it reminds me (and hopefully you) that entertainment has the power to influence behavior—and as such call us to examine our own choices. We say it a lot around here in Plugged In: It’s not just entertainment!