Drinking and the use of drugs among teens can be somewhat expected. Adolescence is a time of experimentation and many teens are doing just that in many areas of life, including drugs and drinking. However, the good news is that this year’s Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) found some encouraging statistics.
For the most part, the use of drugs among 8th, 10th, and 12th graders appears to be decreasing. For instance, the use of alcohol, cigarettes, and many illicit drugs has decreased over the last 5 years, some have even decreased to their lowest levels ever. There was no increase in the use of marijuana among teens, there was a decrease of synthetic drugs (such as spice), and there was a decrease in the abuse of prescription pain medication. These statistics are remarkable and show incredible improvement in teens’ relationship to drugs and alcohol.
However, there are two major concerns to be aware of according to NIDA’s survey. First, there is still a high rate of electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use. The use of e-cigarettes was roughly 9.5 percent of 8th graders, 14.0 percent of 10th graders, and 16.2 percent of 12th graders. The high rate of e-cigarettes might be related to a decrease in the use of tobacco in recent years. The rate of teen cigarette smoking has significantly decreased in the last 10-15 years. However, research shows that teens are using e-cigarettes instead. The rising rates of using e-cigarettes to smoke tobacco might be compensating for the drop in cigarette smoking. Also, e-cigarettes continue to be incredibly popular. In fact, of the 4.6 million young people who admitted to using tobacco, 2.4 million used e-cigarettes. Along these lines, research shows that teens are not sticking to one tobacco product. Instead, 2.2 million teens said they had used more than one tobacco product during the past month.
Second, many teens continue to perceive marijuana as a harmless drug. Because of this perception, teens may continue to be vulnerable to excessive use of marijuana as well as addiction to the drug. According to the survey, marijuana use remained consistent among 8th, 10th, and 12th graders over the past 5 years. Six percent of 12th graders report daily use of marijuana. This may coincide with the fact that many high school seniors do not believe that marijuana is harmful.
There is also a concern among some teens who use marijuana during the school day. One study done in 2012 found that over 85% of high school students reported seeing some of their classmates using alcohol and tobacco during the school day. This study was able to determine that about 17% of students are using and abusing drugs when on school campus.
Although there are still concerns about the use of drugs and alcohol among teens, the research shows that there has been a significant decrease in a wide range of drug categories. This is encouraging news and indicates that the education teens are receiving about the dangers of drugs might be influencing their choices and behaviors – just as we had hoped.
Paradigm Malibu is a teen mental health and addiction treatment center in Malibu, CA. Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, or visit our blog for helpful mental health and addiction recovery tips.© Paradigm Malibu
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