A study released last week by the National Institutes of Health has found that overall use of alcohol, cigarettes and cocaine among teenagers is slowly declining. The long-running annual report, called the Monitoring the Future survey, looked at more than 46,000 students nationwide. It found that teens are using less crack, cocaine, over-the-counter cough and cold medicines, sedatives, tranquilizers and prescription drugs like Adderall and the narcotic painkiller Vicodin. Heavy drinking among high school students also fell, and binge drinking is down by a third from what it was 20 years ago. Even energy drink consumption in high school students has dropped, and their willingness to try most other drugs is on the wane.
The bad news is that marijuana use is up. The report found that one out of every 15 high school students smokes marijuana on a near daily basis, a figure that has reached a 30-year peak. The popularity of marijuana, which is now more prevalent among 10th graders than cigarette smoking, reflects what researchers and drug officials say is a growing perception among teenagers that habitual marijuana use carries little risk of harm. That perception is fueled in part by wider familiarity with medicinal marijuana and greater ease in obtaining it. Medical marijuana is legal in 16 states. And although another study notes a decline in fatal car accidents in those states, in part because people may be substituting marijuana smoking for drinking alcohol, Christian Thurstone, M.D., a specialist in adolescent psychology and addiction, sees disturbing, long-term consequences to increased use of marijuana by teens. Read the full article here.
