青少年最先嚐試的不是喝酒和抽菸,而是大麻!

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.

從前，青少年最先嚐試的是喝酒，然後是抽菸，最後纔是抽大麻。但現在新研究表明，大麻日益成爲青少年最先嚐試的物質。

This trend is not because teens are smoking cannabis more than ever. Rather, the change is because teens are smoking cigarettes and drinking less 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.

該趨勢並非是抽大麻的青少年比以往任何時候都多所造成的。相反，這一變化是因爲抽菸和喝酒的青少年人數變少，而抽大麻的青少年人數保持平穩所致，Katherine M. Keyes表示。Keyes是哥倫比亞大學的流行病學教授，也是本週發表在《藥物與酒精依賴》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.

"喝酒和抽菸的人數急劇下降，但是抽大麻的人數並未出現明顯下降，所以現在，青少年的藥物使用越來越多的從抽大麻開始，"Keyes說道。她補充表示，喝酒和抽菸的青少年比例開始下降--很大程度上得歸功於廣泛的公共衛生活動。

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年來有關美國高中生的調查，發現了這一結果。例如，在1995年，四分之三既抽菸也抽大麻的高二高三學生最先嚐試的是抽菸。到了2016年，最先嚐試抽菸的學生只有40%。現如今，抽大麻前嘗試喝酒和抽菸的學生已不到一半。（研究員並未研究這些學生是先抽菸還是先喝酒。）其它研究發現：總體而言，使用藥物的青少年人數比以往更少，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 marijuana is 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.

這一趨勢很有可能持續下去，因爲人們不再像以往那樣指責抽大麻這一行爲，且越來越多的州都在投票以期使大麻合法化。雖然青少年不應吸食大麻，即使在大麻已經完全合法化的州也不應該，但"這並不是說青少年將更容易以更低的成本獲得大麻，"Keyes說道。"如果某一物質更容易獲得且成本更低，你就會看到使用物質的人數有所增長。"畢竟，青少年喝酒或吸菸是不合法的，但很多孩子卻能在自己家中輕易找到酒飲和香菸。