Teen drug use continues decline; use of inhalants rises

Updated 11:00 AM January 10, 2005

Teen drug use continues decline; use of inhalants rises

By Joseph Serwach
News Service

The proportion of American 8th-, 10th- and 12th-grade students who reported using any illicit drug in the prior 12 months continued a gradual decline in 2004, according to the latest national survey of 50,000 students in the Monitoring the Future study.

This decline has continued since 1996 for the nation's 8th-grade students, among whom there now has been a one-third decline in annual prevalence of using any illicit drug (from 23.6 percent in 1996 to 15.2 percent in 2004). This is the third year of decline for the 10th and 12th graders, following some years of stability in use.

In 2004, the proportions indicating any use of an illicit drug in the prior 12 months were 15 percent, 31 percent and 39 percent in grades 8, 10 and 12, respectively. The proportions of those ever having tried an illicit drug in their lifetimes were 22 percent, 40 percent and 51 percent, respectively.

Marijuana—by far the most widely used of the illicit drugs—also showed a decline in 2004, with small, not statistically significant declines occurring in all grades.

During the past two years, there has been an increase in the proportion of students seeing marijuana use as dangerous; this change in beliefs may well explain some of the recent gradual decline in use. Personal disapproval of marijuana use increased some this year as well.

"Quite possibly, the media campaign aimed at marijuana use that has been undertaken by the White House Office of Drug Control Policy, in collaboration with the Partnership for a Drug Free America, has been having its intended effect," says researcher Lloyd Johnston, the study's principal investigator.

The proportion of students reporting having used any illicit drug other than marijuana fell less than did marijuana in 2004. The indicator for 12th graders showed a small increase. There are many drugs in this class, however, some of which showed a decrease in use and many of which held steady. Among those showing modest declines this year were ecstasy, amphetamines, methamphetamine, PCP, Vicodin, ketamine and steroids.

The resurgence of inhalant use in all three grades, but particularly among the younger students—the 8th graders—is one of the more troublesome findings this year, researchers say. "The continued rise in OxyContin use among high school seniors—even though it is not a statistically significant one—continues to concern us," Johnston says, "particularly given the relatively high prevalence rate already attained by this highly addictive narcotic drug."

For more information about Monitoring the Future and about specific findings from this study, visit http://www.monitoringthefuture.org/.

Monitoring the Future involves annual surveys of approximately 50,000 secondary school students in roughly 400 schools nationwide. The samples are nationally representative of all students enrolled in grades 8, 10 and 12 in public and private secondary schools in the United States. The study now is in its 30th year, having begun surveys of high school seniors in 1975.

It is sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse under a series of competing research grants made to the Institute for Social Research (ISR). Authors Johnston, Patrick O'Malley, Jerald Bachman and John Schulenberg are psychologists and research professors at ISR.

Teen drug use continues decline; use of inhalants rises

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