Many health-conscious Dartmouth students will be concerned to hear new studies have proven marijuana to be more dangerous than previously believed.
Director of College Health Services Dr. Jack Turco said today's marijuana is much stronger than it once was and is often laced with crack and cocaine.
"People form opinions about marijuana based on their experience with it 20 years ago," he said. "Smoking grass just isn't smoking grass anymore."
"It's a different species now -- it's a stronger thing they're smoking," he said.
According to the Drug Abuse Warning Network, marijuana is now more potent and marijuana emergencies have almost doubled in the past five years.
White House National Drug Policy Director Lee Brown this month told The Washington Post recent revelations about the drug "rebut the notion that marijuana is a benign drug."
Turco described marijuana as a "gateway drug," which can lead to the use of more serious and harmful drugs.
Turco said students often take risks without beingknowledgeable of their ramifications.
"People are experimenting with alcohol, marijuana and cocaine, especially in college, and they owe themselves to being as educated as they can before experimenting," he said.
The Post cited a national survey by the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research, which has tracked drug use patterns for the last 20 years.
The survey found 13 percent of eighth-graders had experimented with marijuana in the last year -- twice the level recorded three years ago.
Nearly one-third of the 12th graders interviewed said they had used marijuana in the past year, according to the survey.
