Is your teenager concerned about inequality and pollution? Call a drug counselor.

Do the teenagers you know talk excitedly about inequality, racial discrimination or pollution? If so, according to a pamphlet doing the rounds in the United States, they may be exhibiting the first symptoms of drug addiction.

The pamphlet by Gerald Smith, a criminology professor in Utah, vividly describes these warning signs for the benefit of parents worried that their children may be regular users of marijuana and other drugs.

The affected youth may "avoid the family while at home", the 66-page booklet says, and show "excessive preoccupation with social causes, race relations, environmental issues, etc".

In the introduction, Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, a Mormon minister from Salt Lake City, thunders "a morally depraved society... has chosen to embrace, rather than attack, this plague" of marijuana use.

But the senator believes that with the help of God and Mr Smith's little book, young Americans can be led along the path to a "marijuana-free life".

So he tells parents: "Study this book... and look for the many warning signs of any children who are using marijuana or drugs of any kind."

I hear in the later stages of addiction, these people actually start to believe that gays and racial minorities are human beings, and that homeless people don't deserve to freeze to death. Sickening.

Here's the part of the pamphlet that has the offending phrase; I'll post as much as I can to provide context so that you may judge for yourself.

...There are four warning signs: (a) medical symptoms, (b) behavioral signs, (c) social signs, and (d) circumstantial evidence. Taken alone, any one of these signs may not mean much, but if your child exhibits several of these, you have good reason to suspect marijuana use.

Medical Symptoms Of Regular Users

• Appears lazy
• Chronic, hacking cough - like a heavy tobacco smoker's
• Frequent colds
• Chronic fatigue
• Weight loss
• Chronic sore throat
• Disturbed menstrual cycles
• Dry mouth
• Eyes sensitive to light - users may have "squinty" appearance
• Red eyes
• Frequent headaches
• Impaired coordination caused by a distorted sense of time
• Numbness of the throat, mouth, and tongue in heavy users
• Moves and speaks in slow motion (like a "zombie")

Behavioral Signs of Regular Users

• Abrupt mood changes for no apparent reason
• Antagonistic to all authority
• Belligerent
• Depressed
• Evasive
• Excessively private
• Lack of motivation to do much of anything, especially anything physical (This is not normal in teenagers.)
• Lying
• Marked decrease in personal hygiene (This is not normal in teenagers.)
• Memory loss
• Problems at school, talk of dropping out
• Sneaky
• Sudden, precipitous loss in grades
• Sudden loss of previous interests, especially sports
• Sullen
• Very sloppy or extreme dress and grooming (Boys tend to have long and/or unkempt hair. Girls may wear extreme and/or revealing clothing. Both may sport sunglasses to hide red eyes.

Social Signs Of Regular Users

• Avoids the family while at home
• Interest in Ras Tafari religion (Marijuana use is part of that religion.)
• Extreme rebelliousness à la James Dean in "Rebel Without A Cause"
• Excessive preoccupation with social causes, race relations, environmental issues, etc.
• Frequent, lengthy, or unexplained absences
• Runs away or threatens to
• Serious sibling conflicts
• Stays out all night or comes in at abnormally late hours
• Camp-outs and stay-overs (to distance themselves from parents)
• Unacceptable new friends or refusal to bring new friends home
• Unexplained or poorly explained need for money. (Money or valuables may "disappear" from around the house, offers lame excuses when confronted.)
• Vocabulary is full of drug culture slang (see the Appendix, page 56)

It should be noted for the record that the Ras Tafarian religion does not use marijuana in any of its rituals nor promote the use of marijuana as a spiritual tool. Ras Tafari does not condemn its use either and many, many Ras Tafarians partake of ingesting marijuana one way or another. This is what lead to the common misconception that all the Ras Tafari do is smoke dubes and play soccer which is a poor representation of their belief structure.