On Sun, 24 Apr 2005, snitsnat wrote:
> At 07:56 PM 4/24/2005, jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net wrote:
>> Thousand of people just lazing about in laudanum dens
>> wreaking havoc on the countries productivity and moral fiber!
>
> heh. There was a study that followed 200 kids from age three to 18. They
> looked at their drug use: abstainers, experimenters, heavy users. I can't
> remember the exact details but, basically, the point was that the study
> traced their problems to childhood issues and relationship with parents, as
> to whether they turned out to have problems with drug use. One frequently
> cited study of pot users attributes their slacking to the fact that they were
> inclined to be like that anyway.
>
Jack Block has done a lot of interesting longitudinal research on this (this may be what Kel is remembering): depression and drug use are related in teens, which may appear to support Mike D's claim about the evil effects of heavy drug use. However, depressed teens who are heavy drug users tend to have previous significant psychological/family problems. The drug use isn't the underlying causal factor; like the depression, it's a symptom of already existing family/psychological issues.
Miles