Risky Business
By: Mr. Wilson on
June 11, 2008
- 34% of teens have had sex. That sounds about right
- 10% "rarely" or "never" wear a seatbelt. I was raised to always wear my seatbelt, so this seems weird to me. Why wouldn't you wear a seatbelt?
- 40% have had alcohol in the past 30 days. That's an incredibly high number when you consider all the laws, regulations, and programs in place to get the number down. Something is broken.
- 34% have smoked pot. Seriously, 1/3 of teens have used marijuana? Wow. I had the munchies 24/7 when I was a teen, and I was sober as a judge. I can't imagine how much I might have eaten if I had partaken of the demon weed.
- 13% have attempted suicide in the past year. This is the one that really caught my eye. One out of every eight teens has tried to kill himself. If that number were accurate for my graduating class, that would mean somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 of my classmates had attempted suicide before donning a cap and gown. I don't know what counts as an "attempt", and I don't know how reliable this survey is. But ... wow.
Comments
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That last one is startling.
Re: the seatbelt thing, I know a guy who has been in two accidents in his life, and he was saved because he was tossed from the car in both cases. Doctors told him he would’ve died if he were wearing his seatbelt. So because he believes in the less than 1% of the cases, he chooses to ignore the other 99% of situations in which people were saved by their seatbelts.
I think there’s something Darwinian going on there. I just make him wear a seatbelt in my car because I don’t want him taking someone else out if we get in a wreck.
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