Will the “legitimacy” of legalization change how young people view pot? A recent federal report claimed that the percentage of high school students who smoke pot is rising (very slowly), but alcohol and other narcotics are on the decline. Is this a good thing? The creepy-sounding Monitoring the Future found that 12 percent of eighth graders and 36 percent of high school seniors claim to have smoked pot in 2013. Around 60 percent of high school seniors don’t believe marijuana is harmful.

Usage had, supposedly, been dropping slightly for years before 2013. It’s impossible to tell exactly how many Americans are regular pot smokers, but Gallup says that over the last 30 years the percentage of marijuana smokers in America has remained constant. Thirty-eight percent of Americans admit to trying marijuana in 2013, compared to 34 percent in 1999 and 33 percent in 1985.

So, for the past several decades, large numbers of Americans tried marijuana – but a similar number of Americans make the same consumer choice. Drugs are rampantly available in college campuses and easily accessible everywhere else. Only 15 percent of adults have ever tried cocaine and 2 percent have tried heroin. People experiment, and kids might give it a shot, but most adults act like adults and favor the far more beneficial, honorable and decent choice: alcohol.