Essay Example on In the novel The Catcher in the Rye

In the novel The Catcher in the Rye the vice of smoking is commonly portrayed throughout the entire story The protagonist Holden Caulfield often uses smoking as a form of escape from conflicts he came across or used smoking to help him deal with stress and to settle his nerves He tends to rely on smoking for plenty of situations that he is put into and majority of the time he does not even notice that he is smoking Holden claims that he barely smokes cigarettes but in reality he smokes like a chimney He is addicted to the nicotine that is in the tobacco of cigarettes This is still a problem in today's society with teenagers such as Holden that smoke because they do not realize how unhealthy smoking may be as well as how damaging it actually is Although teenagers do not smoke cigarettes as much as Holden did in his time due to its lack of popularity smoking marijuana is the newest trend for this generation Smoking is an important issue that still affects teenagers today Firstly marijuana also known as cannabis weed and pot along with plenty of other names is a dark green gray mixture of dried flowers of the Cannabis Sativa Marijuana can be smoked in plenty of different ways It can be hand rolled as a cigarette also called a joint in pipes water pipes vaporizers or in blunts marijuana rolled in cigar wraps It can also be used to brew tea but in that particular situation marijuana is used for medicinal purposes It is also frequently mixed into foods such as cookies brownies and candies There are stronger forms of marijuana for instance sinsemilla and concentrated resins containing high doses of the drug s active ingredients including waxy budder and honeylike hash oil 

These resins are becoming very popular among those who use them both for recreational and medicinal purposes The main mind altering chemical in cannabis that is responsible for the intoxicating effects that people pursue is delta 9 tetrahydrocannabinol or THC The chemical that is found in resin is produced by the leaves of the female cannabis plant The plant contains more than five hundred other chemicals including more than one hundred compounds that are related to THC What is Marijuana 2017 Secondly teenagers use marijuana for many different reasons some of which include making themselves feel better and to help them cope with anxiety anger and depression They will also smoke cannabis as a form of escape but boredom is one of the main reasons why teens start smoking Teenagers who have been physically or sexually abused as a child have a more likelihood to start smoking than other teens They turn to drugs as an escape from the fear and pain of the abuse they have experienced If a teenager grew up in a household or neighbourhood with family members friends or neighbors that smoke or express approval of marijuana the teenager is more likely to start smoking it Peer pressure still remains the strongest and biggest influence as to why teenagers start smoking marijuana today Some teens also start smoking because they are not aware of the harm that the drug can do to the brain which is still developing at their age or the body They have either not been informed of the damage it can cause or they have been misinformed about it Thirdly a survey suggested that in 2015 about seventeen percent of Canadian teenagers smoke marijuana These are teenagers that are between the age of thirteen and eighteen This raises suspicions for the Liberals as they are about to legalize marijuana later in the year 

A study showed that regular cannabis users had increased brain activities and although that may seem like a good thing it actually causes the brain to work harder and has to engage more resources to respond accurately The earlier and more frequently that a teenager smokes marijuana the greater chance of the loss of intelligence by the age of thirty eight Teenagers who also started smoking early on in their life and had consistently smoked until adulthood can demonstrate a six point IQ drop In 2002 a study found that the use of cannabis in adolescence can significantly increase the probability of developing schizophrenia in adulthood especially if the teenager had been smoking the drug since they were fifteen years old Teenagers who smoke marijuana are sixty percent less likely to finish high school or get a university degree due to their drug abuse