In this year’s Monitoring the Future (MTF) Study, which is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and conducted by researchers at the University of MI, 35.3 percent of high school seniors reported that they had consumed alcohol in the previous month, compared to 68.2 percent in 1975, when the survey began.
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America’s high school students are using drugs and alcohol at or near the lowest levels on record, according to federal data released Wednesday.
According to the 2015 Monitoring the Future survey, 6 percent of 12th graders admitted to daily marijuana use this year, which is about the same rate as last year. An equal number of sophomores-3 percent-use marijuana daily as smoke cigarettes.
“Marijuana, the most widely used of the illicit drugs, did not show any significant change in annual prevalence this year in any of the three grades, nor in the three grades combined”, MTF reported in its press release. For example, tobacco use among 10th-graders has dropped almost 55 percent in five years, going from 6.6 percent to 3 percent this year. All in all, the teen use of drugs and alcohol has declined over the past two decades among American teens. In addition, teens reported using flavored little cigars at the same rate as cigarettes, and the percentage of teens who smoked tobacco in the past 30 days increased by more than half when cigarillos are included with regular cigarettes. He claims that among the factors which lead young people to think that marijuana is not harmful is the increasing of the states which legalize it for both therapeutic and recreational use.
Despite those changing perceptions, marijuana use has remained fairly steady among high school seniors over the past few years. That prompted the deputy director of the National Institution on Drug Abuse, Dr. Wilson Compton, to tell U.S. News it may be time to reconsider the connection.
Roughly twice as many boys as girls report using e-cigarettes (21.5 percent to 10.9 percent). Teen pot use stabilized before legalization and hasn’t increased since. However, one-third report getting them from their own prescriptions, underscoring the need to monitor teens taking opioids and evaluate prescribing practices.
Use of many illicit drugs has trended down. Banning youth-friendly cartridge flavors, such as bubble gum, cotton candy and tutti frutti, may discourage teens from using the devices, Johnston says. Those in the 10th class, 16% said that they have used an e-cigarette and 7% have used a tobacco cigarette.
Binge drinking (described as having five or more drinks in a row within the past two weeks) is 17.2 percent among seniors, down from 19.4 percent a year ago and down from peak rates in 1998 at 31.5 percent. It’s no wonder tobacco use is still the number one cause of preventable death in our country, killing more than 480,000 people and costing about $170 billion in health care expenses each year.
Prescription opioids like Vicodin continue to decline in popularity, with only 4.4 percent of seniors popping the pills now compared to 10.5 percent in 2003.
Overall, 44,892 students from 382 public and private schools participated in this year’s MTF survey.
The rate of monthly marijuana use by 10th-graders appears to have dropped significantly from 2014 (and 2010) to 2015.
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The researchers noted that teen drinking remains concerning, as does relatively steady rates of marijuana use. Lloyd Johnston and Richard Miech.
