Spreading Like Weed : Teens Love Trends. And the Resurgence of Marijuana is No Exception, Despite Health Warnings From Doctors, Schools and Parents

Gina can pick them out of the crowd. They dress in flannels and other grunge gear; they go to class after lunch stinking of “bud.” It’s a ritual that is repeated daily for a scattering of students at her Orange County high school.

Not the “stoner type,” Gina, 16, is never asked to join them. Some of her friends are “straight edgers” who say no to drugs and snub users. So she tends to keep her own weed use to herself.

“I don’t do it at parties. I worry a lot about what people think of me. I worry a lot (about) everything. I wouldn’t do it just to do it,” says the Dana Hills High School sophomore, who puffs only with her older sisters. “Pot relaxes me, and I can think of anything. It makes me more creative.”

While Gina (whose name has been changed, along with those of other students in this story) might not share her peers’ zeal to light up every day, she is counted in the growing scene of high school teens who have significantly driven up statistics of illicit drug use--with marijuana heading the list--in the past two years, according to a federal report issued earlier this month.

As one Estancia High junior put it: “Pot’s become really trendy.”

Whether it’s toking to release stress, to seemingly jump-start inspiration or just to look cool at a party, high-schoolers continue a tradition of drug experimentation. This despite warnings from doctors, schools and parents of health risks that can result in lung damage or psychological addiction.

The recent upsurge is rooted in the ‘90s renaissance of flower power ideals, with many teens figuring their parents survived the era of Woodstock and turned out all right. That researchers have determined today’s marijuana is 20 times more potent than that of the ‘60s and ‘70s is either news to them, disregarded or considered a fringe benefit.

The rise has accompanied a widespread attitude shift toward marijuana, which was considered counterculture domain by the generation that parented today’s high-schoolers. The marijuana leaf motif has become the happy face of late, emblazoned on baseball caps and T-shirts. Its popularity has been catapulted in part by continuing pop-culture favorites such as the Grateful Dead and the recent mainstream popularity of reggae and its Rastafarian culture, which espouse “ganja” for a spiritual high.

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On a wider scale, credit goes to newer recording artists such as Cypress Hill, Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg. Cypress Hills’ pot ode “Insane in the Brain” shot their debut album “Black Sunday” to the No. 1 slot on the Billboard charts. Dr. Dre’s album “Chronic” (another term used for marijuana) still claims a position, 15 months after its release. Through their music and interviews, these self-appointed spokesmen of the current movement convey their mission to legalize marijuana and cultivate the plant it comes from--hemp--for its many practical uses, from medicine to fabric.

The list of applications for hemp especially appeals to generations preoccupied with saving Mother Earth because it is a natural plant. This has attracted supporters to the marijuana subculture whose motivation to reintroduce hemp farming goes beyond getting high.

Many clothing companies have been designing a few units or whole collections cut from cannabis cloth, a super-strength material that resembles burlap but is softer. Because it’s made from the fibrous innards of the hemp plant stem, the cloth is drug-free. Hemp baseball caps and wallets, by the Hempstead Co. in Los Angeles, typically featuring an embroidered marijuana leaf, are hot sellers at alternative fashion boutiques such as Sunline Electric Chair in Huntington Beach--despite a price tag that’s double that of like products made of conventional materials.

Another item hard to keep in stock at Sunline is a book considered the quintessential source on the subject, “Hemp & the Marijuana Conspiracy: The Emperor Wears No Clothes,” by Jack Herer. First published in 1985 and updated almost annually, the book is full of historical, scientific and legal documentation, complete with footnotes. Store buyer Jennifer Johnson estimates the customers who are primarily doling out the $19.95 for the book are “mostly younger kids,” between ages 14 to 23.

Count Mary among them. The high school junior stood in front of her U.S. history class last semester reporting how the Declaration of Independence was drafted on hemp paper, which accounted for 75% to 90% of all paper in the world until 1883. She underscored the environmental positives, such as how one acre of cannabis produces as much paper as 4.1 acres of trees. She threw out patriotic names like Thomas Jefferson, Bejamin Franklin and George Washington as entrepreneurs of hemp product. Mary capsulated centuries of hemp history during her 10-minute presentation. She got an A.

Even before she took her first hit two years ago, Mary says she was well versed with Herer’s book and had attended several local rallies to legalize hemp. Now she smokes it daily, alone or with friends. She adds hard liquor to the scene on the weekends. Pot puts her in a “thinking mood . . . sometimes. My mom thinks it’s fine as long as it doesn’t interfere with my life.”

She’s rarely ditched class in the past to party, figuring it’s not that tough waiting until the end of the school day to get stoned, which she does every chance she gets. “Ditching parties,” which are still widespread among Los Angeles high-schoolers, are apparently considered passe among Orange County students; they don’t need to skip school, because they can use eyedrops to relieve the telltale redness.

Mary keeps a B average in her classes, even with her after-school secretarial job. The part-time work covers a bag of “swag” (lower quality marijuana), which can cost $15, or 1/8-ounce of prime “skunk,” which goes for $60.

“I don’t even think pot’s a drug. It’s completely natural,” Mary says.

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Estancia High junior Mize generally prefers his buds pure, but at some parties he’s smoked a bowl of “coco puffs,” a mixture of pot with cocaine. The varsity athlete and his friends say they find that popular recipes such as lacing joints with PCP or dipping them in solvents and insecticides adulterate the natural essence of marijuana.

“Reality. I don’t like it. I like the reality of being stoned,” says Mize, 17, a five-year veteran of weed who frequently gets stoned with his mother. “If I’m going to do something, I have to take a bong hit. It’s the first thing I do when I wake up. We do it during breaks between classes. This way we’re never sober.”

Though Mize has to consciously exert more willpower to get anything done, he says marijuana should be legalized, even more so than alcohol.

Legalization is about the only reason Evelyn can fathom for participating in the democratic process. “The only reason I want to be a registered voter is so I can become an activist to legalize pot,” says the senior at Monte Vista High in Santa Ana. After rattling off facts, some misquoted, from Herer’s ganja bible, Evelyn explains her use on a personal level: “That’s when I can write my best poetry and philosophy.”

Foothill High junior Simone thinks otherwise. The 17-year-old got stoned once, and it only gave her the munchies.

Simone agrees with Evelyn on the issue of legalization, however, saying that alcohol and marijuana induce similar effects. “If they’re going to keep alcohol legal, then marijuana should be legalized as well, and there should be a marijuana age just like there’s a drinking age.” To Simone, alcohol is a greater evil at her school than marijuana because it’s more widely used.

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Even with campus debates on legalization at Foothill High, traditional problems with marijuana such as smoking out in the parking lot, going “tweaked” to class or selling it on school grounds have been nonexistent according to both Simone and her assistant principal, Charles Milligan.

Though it’s the convenience of getting marijuana that keeps it popular, Milligan says alcohol is still the drug of choice among high-schoolers. “I’m not one with my head in the ground, but I think the problem is pretty much the same as it’s always been,” says Milligan, in reference to the recent study showing a rise in use of marijuana among teens. “I think we’re a little more aware of what to look for than in the past.”

Perhaps so, but many high-schoolers--including drug users--believe the rise is connected to drug awareness programs that they say are failures for not targeting older kids.

“We’re the first generation brought up on ‘Just Say No,’ red ribbon (week) and other campaigns,” Simone says. “What a lot of parents and administrators don’t realize is that by eighth grade those campaigns are absolutely banal, almost demeaning. We want more facts. We don’t want little bears or ribbons. If anything, the surge is an unconscious rebellion against an authority that doesn’t have a clue.”