Drug Use By Eighth-Graders Declining, Use by Older Teenagers Holding, Says Monitoring the Future Survey |
DRUG USE TRENDSJanuary 1998 |
Drug use in 1997 among U.S. teenagers leveled off after rising steadily during the early 1990s according to the Monitoring the Future Survey. The Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan, which is led by principal researcher Dr. Lloyd Johnston, released the survey on December 20, 1997 (University of Michigan, "1997 Monitoring the Future Survey," December 1997; Christopher Wren, "Survey Suggests Leveling Off In Use of Drugs By Students," New York Times, December 21, 1997, p. A24; Roberto Suro, "Young Teens Showing Greater Drug Awareness," Washington Post, December 21, 1997, p. A18; Alissa J. Rubin, "Younger Teens' Drug Use Leveling Off, Study Finds," Los Angeles Times, December 21, 1997, p. A22).
"It certainly is giving evidence of deceleration and leveling, and that's good news after the last five or six years," Johnston said. "Clearly, the best news is what's going on with eighth graders." Eighth-graders expressed somewhat more disapproval of drug users than eight-graders did in 1996, which Johnston considers significant as a indicator of future drug use by teenagers. Among eighth-grade students, experimentation with heroin dropped from 2.4% in 1996 to 2.1% in 1997. The number trying cocaine at least once also fell slightly from 4.5% in 1996 to 4.4% in 1997.
Experiments with stimulants and hallucinogens rose slightly for high school seniors, while remaining flat for 10th graders and declining for 8th graders. Only 26% of seniors said they disapproved of people who took a drink or two of beer, wine or liquor, while 51% expressed the same disapproval about experimenting with marijuana. Cocaine experimenting among the seniors rose from 7.1% in 1996 to 8.7% in 1997. And 2.1% of the seniors said they had tried heroin, compared with 1.8% in 1996.
Up to 90% of the teenagers who use drugs reported smoking marijuana. Half of the seniors who graduated from high school in June admitted to having tried marijuana at least once, compared with 45% in 1996. And 5.8% of the graduating seniors said they smoked marijuana daily in the previous 30 days, compared with 4.9% in 1996. Nine out of 10 of all seniors surveyed said marijuana was easy to obtain.
The survey confirmed that alcohol remains the biggest problem among teenagers. Thirty-one percent of high school seniors, 25% of sophomores, and 15% of eighth-graders admitted to binge drinking in the previous two weeks, defined as having five or more drinks in a single sitting, on one occasion or more. Adolescent binge drinking peaked in 1983 when 41% of seniors reported that they had become drunk in the previous two weeks.
The rate of adolescent drug experimentation is higher than in the early 1990s, but below its peak in 1979. Dr. Johnston attributes the high and low cycles to what he calls "generational forgetting," in which teenagers have not learned the consequences of drug use that their elders experienced.
The Household survey released in August also found drug use slightly down among younger adolescents (see "Youth Drug Use Turns Down, Says Annual Household Survey," NewsBriefs, August 1997).
The Monitoring the Future survey annually tracks drug use by adolescents in the 8th, 10th and 12th grades. It is conducted for the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA). For the survey, researchers surveyed 51,000 students at 429 public and private secondary schools from February to May 1997.
Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan - 412 Maynard, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1399, Tel: (313) 763-5043. The report is located online at www.isr.umich.edu/src/mtf.
| LIFETIME | LAST YEAR | LAST 30 DAYS | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ANY ILLICIT DRUG |
1991 | 1996 | 1997 | 1991 | 1996 | 1997 | 1991 | 1996 | 1997 |
| 8th Grade | 18.7% | 31.2% | 29.4% | 11.3% | 23.6% | 22.1% | 5.7% | 14.6% | 12.9% |
| 10th Grade | 30.6% | 45.4% | 47.3% | 21.4% | 37.5% | 38.5% | 11.6% | 23.2% | 23.0% |
| 12th Grade | 44.1% | 50.8% | 54.3% | 29.4% | 40.2% | 42.4% | 16.4% | 24.6% | 26.2% |
MARIJUANA |
1991 | 1996 | 1997 | 1991 | 1996 | 1997 | 1991 | 1996 | 1997 |
| 8th Grade | 10.2% | 23.1% | 22.6% | 6.2% | 18.3% | 17.7% | 3.2% | 11.3% | 10.2% |
| 10th Grade | 23.4% | 39.8% | 42.3% | 16.5% | 33.6% | 34.8% | 8.7% | 20.4% | 20.5% |
| 12th Grade | 36.7% | 44.9% | 49.6% | 23.9% | 35.8% | 38.5% | 13.8% | 21.9% | 23.7% |
ALCOHOL* |
1991* | 1996 | 1997 | 1991* | 1996 | 1997 | 1991* | 1996 | 1997 |
| 8th Grade | 70.1% | 55.3% | 53.8% | 54.0% | 46.5% | 45.5% | 25.1% | 26.2% | 24.5% |
| 10th Grade | 83.8% | 71.8% | 72.0% | 72.3% | 65.0% | 65.2% | 42.8% | 40.4% | 40.1% |
| 12th Grade | 88.0% | 79.2% | 81.7% | 77.7% | 72.5% | 74.8% | 54.0% | 50.8% | 52.7% |
CIGARETTES |
1991 | 1996 | 1997 | 1991 | 1996 | 1997 | 1991 | 1996 | 1997 |
| 8th Grade | 44.0% | 49.2% | 47.3% | -- | -- | -- | 14.3% | 21.0% | 19.4% |
| 10th Grade | 55.1% | 61.2% | 60.2% | -- | -- | -- | 20.8% | 30.4% | 29.8% |
| 12th Grade | 63.1% | 63.5% | 65.4% | -- | -- | -- | 28.3% | 34.0% | 36.5% |
* In 1993, the question text was changed to indicate that a "drink" meant "more than a few sips."