From personal experience and personal observations I can tell you that 9-11 year olds who are doing drugs are trying to self-medicate for some issues that they feel they cannot cope with on their own. I hope the parents are paying more attention to their kids. People, please pay more attention to your children (and yourselves in some cases). If you don't know the signs, please search the internet. There is a lot of help out there. Ask another parent or something. There would be no drugs if there was no market for them. And it is those of us who need to "escape" who are creating the market. Law enforcement cannot stop every drug shipment, I don't care how much fencing you put up. Emotionally and mentally healthy people don't need to use drugs. Now, how we help all of those who feel the need, that is the real question.

I agree that parents need to be more involved in their childrens lives however, mine were and I still got my hands on drugs. This is not just a parental issue. It's a nation issue that needs all the help it can get. This country doesn't seem to take notice of the children or elderly anymore and this is the result. Havoc!

I used to live in this area. I remember when it first hit the streets. They took all the tylenol pm's off the ready shelves and placed them behind the counter. It is a shame that people can't even live these days without having to worry about the CHILDREN being over powered, and I mean middle-school children, being overcome with this CRAP. THE WHOLE WORLD HAS GONE TO HELL, STRAIGHT!

We all seem to complain about it as if its something new, but isn't the world SUPPOSED to be headed straight towards hell?
Its in the Bible.

If the cheese belongs to someone else, is it "nacho cheese"?

The more repressive and inflexible a culture, the more the common people (and especially the young)rush to seek out exactly what is denied or prohibited to them.
This has historically been the case with sexuality since the Puritans, alcohol through prohibition and drugs of all sorts for the last 80 to 100 years.
It's just getting weirder now that the world has become smaller and this culture has become global.

If you think this is bad, just ask for a "cheese pizza" on any shady block in your town.

That's a trip you won't be coming back from.

"While it's definitely a parenting issue, it's also just one more reason to get your kids out of the cesspools that are public schools. Unless you also have this stuff at home, and then, well, you and they are screwed."

Oh, Billy D, you are SUCH a kidder.

See, I think his comment is too simplistic. Does he really think that private school kids don't abuse drugs? Drug problems can happen at many different schools, so the best thing to do is:

1. Instill anti-drug values in your children from an early age
2. Check the considered schools to find any widespread drug abuse on-campus and off-campus.

I think that this is stupid and people need to stop blaming parents for this!!
If you have a kid you better read this, your kid is going to try new things and get into trouble you might have to pull them away if it gets too serious but hey it's teenage years.

I have been educating kids on this drug for sometime, however until school systems add a drug education class requirement to school curriculum as a requirement we are just creating addicts instead of preventing them. We are the #1 drug consuming country in the world you would think prevention would be a mandatory class for students in this crazy, mixed-up world.
Parents keep fighting for your kids, and teachers don't give up hope for lack of discipline.

When will all of the nanny-state politics end. If i want to put cheese up my nose, who's the government to stop me!? Someone should tell these public school kids the secret that private school kids have been hiding for years: coke!

Listen I think all you americans are getting a little racist here and characteristic of americans "blame someone else and start desciminating"

See, it's crap like this that just infuriates me! The war on drugs is all messed up. Priorities have been skewered. Kids are dying from stuff like cheese, heroin, meth, and cocaine. I bet you've never heard of a kid dying from too much pot! Nope, there's pretty much no way to kill yourself by smoking too much pot. You read about kids dying from alcohol overdoeses often. Scan the news, have you EVER heard of a pot overdose? NO! Because you can't OD on it! Peroid. You're surely gonna see the next day! Marijuana is the safest drug you can do.
It's so much safer than alcohol that it should be legal, and alcohol should be illegal.

Enforcing marijuana laws costs an estimated $10-15 billion in direct costs alone. If we taxed and regulated it in a manner similar to alcohol, we'd generate several billion more dollars annually on top of the direct cost savings. So we'd have about $15+ billion dollars to help get rid of the hard drugs that could actually kill a kid. You should have to be 21 to buy pot. Pot's such a soft drug, it's squishy. Studies say that currently, pot is easier for minors to get than booze. The logical deduction that can be reached from this argument is that pot would be harder for youth to acquire if it were legal, but only available in package stores, like booze.

The great American Evangelist Billy Sunday said: "whiskey is allright in its place--but its place is in hell." I think he would say the same thing about drugs if he were alive today.

Marijuana causes brain damage. Sure, it may not kill you overnight, but if you keep on smoking it you will die of emphysema, lung cancer, car accidents, stupidity, etc. The first sign of brain damage from this drug is that you can't spell simple words, and you actually think that marijuana should be legal.

messed up!! no IDEA why anyone wud wana do that crap. and its not the parents fault if the kids wana do it they can sadly. time they start THINKIN FOR THEMSELVES but nope.. when everyhting they known is just told to them without any thought yea... im moving to SWITZERLAND WHOS WITH ME!!!!!!!!!

Concerned mom -- You seem to be missing the point. The point isn't whether or not marijuana is good for you. The point is that in comparison to a drug like alcohol, it's rather tame in its perceived social/physiological effects. In other words, alcohol can also cause brain damage, death "by stupidity", and accidents, yet it is decriminalized. The criminalization of marijuana is hypocritical and its roots actually stem from racism. That's right, the government originally made marijuana illegal in order to have another reason to arrest minorities. Anyway, I'm pretty sure my facts are straight and my spelling is correct. Instead of making a lame joke about signs of brain damage caused by marijuana, why don't you go read more than a magazine article and actually base your opinion on information gathered from more than one source. Encourage your child to make decisions after searching thoroughly for facts... not just accepting what seems popular. I'm sooooo looking forward to my death "by stupidity". :)

who ever does drugs is the most dumest stupidest people in the world. you are meesing up tour life you can easily get addicted to it, and when you want to quit you can't cause you're body is used to it and so are you. there's nothing you can do about it now.you will get caught sooner or later and you will pay the qonsequences.

please tell me one person who has died from smoking pot ? i dare you to find one person.

I'm astonished at some of the responses in here. This has nothing to do with American culture. Most people I know are not hedonists. This has to do with drug dealers and their greed for money. We need to do more about these damn dealers and stop blaming each other and looking for ways to think the world's going to hell. That won't help, it will just make it worse.