青少年最先尝试的不是喝酒和抽烟

Teens used to try alcohol first, then tobacco, and then marijuana. Now, marijuana is increasingly the first "gateway" substance for adolescents, according to new research.

从前，青少年最先尝试的是喝酒，然后是抽烟，最后才是抽大麻。但现在新研究表明，大麻日益成为青少年最先尝试的物质。

This trend is not because teens are smoking cannabis more than ever. Rather, the change is because teens are smoking cigarettes and drinkingless while the numbers for marijuana have held steady, according to Katherine M. Keyes, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University and co-author of the new study, published this week in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

该趋势并非是抽大麻的青少年比以往任何时候都多所造成的。相反，这一变化是因为抽烟和喝酒的青少年人数变少，而抽大麻的青少年人数保持平稳所致，Katherine M. Keyes表示。Keyes是哥伦比亚大学的流行病学教授，也是本周发表在《药物与酒精依赖》期刊上的本研究的合著作者。

"As we've seen the dramatic declines in alcohol and tobacco, we haven't seen dramatic declines in marijuana, so now every year it's more and more likely that kids are starting their drug-use careers with marijuana," says Keyes. She adds that rates of teen drinking and smoking started to fall - thanks largely to widespread public health campaigns.

"喝酒和抽烟的人数急剧下降，但是抽大麻的人数并未出现明显下降，所以现在，青少年的药物使用越来越多的从抽大麻开始，"Keyes说道。她补充表示，喝酒和抽烟的青少年比例开始下降--很大程度上得归功于广泛的公共卫生活动。

The authors found this by analyzing 40 years of surveys from American high school students. For example, in 1995, three-fourths of seniors who used both marijuana and cigarettes had tried cigarettes first. By 2016, only 40 percent had tried cigarettes first. Today, less than half of teens try alcohol and cigarettes before trying cannabis. (The researchers didn't look specifically at whether alcohol or tobacco came next.) Other studies have found that, in general, teens are doing fewer drugs than ever, except for marijuana.

研究作者分析了40年来有关美国高中生的调查，发现了这一结果。例如，在1995年，四分之三既抽烟也抽大麻的高二高三学生最先尝试的是抽烟。到了2016年，最先尝试抽烟的学生只有40%。现如今，抽大麻前尝试喝酒和抽烟的学生已不到一半。(研究员并未研究这些学生是先抽烟还是先喝酒。)其它研究发现：总体而言，使用药物的青少年人数比以往更少，除了大麻。

Most likely, this trend will continue as marijuana becomes less stigmatized and more and more states vote to legalize the drug. Though teens aren't supposed to smoke marijuana even in the states that have fully legalized it, "it's not going out on a huge limb to suggest that marijuanais going to be more available at a lower cost to adolescents," says Keyes. "If you make a substance more available at a lower cost and easier to access, you're gonna see increases." After all, it's also illegal for kids to drink or smoke, but many easily find both alcohol and cigarettes in their own homes.

这一趋势很有可能持续下去，因为人们不再像以往那样指责抽大麻这一行为，且越来越多的州都在投票以期使大麻合法化。虽然青少年不应吸食大麻，即使在大麻已经完全合法化的州也不应该，但"这并不是说青少年将更容易以更低的成本获得大麻，"Keyes说道。"如果某一物质更容易获得且成本更低，你就会看到使用物质的人数有所增长。"毕竟，青少年喝酒或吸烟是不合法的，但很多孩子却能在自己家中轻易找到酒饮和香烟。