Washington State Heath Secretary Worries About Anti-Pot Efforts for Teens

SEATTLE (AP) — Washington state's top health official says she's worried that a new marijuana law may make teen smoking prevention efforts more difficult.

High school students who participated in a statewide survey say they are twice as likely to smoke marijuana as cigarettes.

Health Secretary Mary Selecky says she's concerned that marijuana prevention efforts aren't ready to ramp up in response to the new state law.

She says that "as the perception of harm goes down, use goes up."

More than half of 10th graders said in the survey that it's easy to get marijuana and about 19 percent said they smoked marijuana within 30 days of the survey. About 27 percent of 12th graders said they smoked pot.

More than 200,000 youth took the voluntary and anonymous survey in October.