U.S. teen drug use down, but problems remain: survey

U.S. teen drug use down, but problems remain: survey
A man smokes a marijuana cigarette in a file photo. Overall use of illicit drugs by U.S. teenagers has dropped in the past decade, but use of the drug ecstasy is up and abuse of prescription medications remains worrisome, researchers said on Tuesday. (Pablo La Rosa/Reuters)WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Overall use of illicit drugs by U.S.teenagers has dropped in the past decade, but use of the drugecstasy is up and abuse of prescription medications remainsworrisome, researchers said on Tuesday.
Thirteen percent of eighth grade students reported using anillicit drug at least once in the past year in 2007, downnearly half from 24 percent in 1996, University of Michiganresearchers said. Such students are generally 13 or 14 yearsold.
The annual report on U.S. youth drug use was released bythe White House and U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse. Theresults stem from a survey of 48,025 students from 403 U.S.public and private schools in eighth, 10th and 12th grades.
President George W. Bush touted the findings as evidencethat his anti-drug efforts have worked.
"On the one hand we'll interdict and prevent and disruptdrug supply networks. And on the other hand, we'll work toconvince people they shouldn't use drugs in the first place andthose that have, there's recovery programs for you," he said.
The researchers who conducted the study noted the declinestarted in the 1990s.
"The cumulative declines since recent peak levels of druginvolvement in the mid-1990s are quite substantial, especiallyamong the youngest students," University of Michigan researcherLloyd Johnston said in a statement.
Use of the drug MDMA, commonly called ecstasy, is growing,the report found. It also indicated nonmedical use ofprescription medications remains a significant concern, with 15percent of 12th graders in 2007 reporting using a prescriptiondrug for nonmedical reasons in the prior year.
GRADUAL DECLINES
Teenagers in all three grade levels displayed a gradualdecline in the numbers reporting use of illicit drugs, with thedecline most pronounced among the eighth graders.
The survey found that 28 percent of 10th graders in 2007reported use of an illicit drug at least once in the prioryear, down from 39 percent in 1997. Among 12th graders, thatnumber was 36 percent, down from a recent peak of 42 percent in1997, the survey found.
All three grades showed a continuing decline in 2007,although only the decline in eighth grade from the 2006 results-- a drop of 1.6 percentage points -- was of statisticalsignificance, the researchers said.
The drugs most responsible for this year's modest declineswere marijuana and various stimulants including amphetamines,Ritalin (prescribed for attention deficit hyperactivitydisorder), methamphetamine, often called "meth," and crystalmethamphetamine, the researchers said.
Marijuana is still the most widely used of all illicitdrugs.
Ecstasy use among teenagers fell sharply in the beginningof this decade but its use has begun to rise again. Among 10thgraders, 3.5 percent said this year they had used it sometimein the past 12 months, up from a recent low of 2.4 percent in2004. In 12th grade, that figure rose from a recent low of 3percent in 2005 to 4.5 percent in 2007, the researchers said.
The survey found no change this year in youth use of anumber of illicit drugs, including cocaine, crack cocaine, LSD,other hallucinogens, heroin and many prescription drugs usedfor nonmedical purposes such as the painkillers OxyContin andVicodin. Between 2 and 5 percent of those in the three gradesuse cocaine, the survey found.
(Editing by Maggie Fox)