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Teen Drug Use Declined in 2002, Report Shows |
Research News
Vol. 17, No. 5 (January 2003) |
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By Patrick Zickler, NIDA NOTES Staff Writer Drug use by American teenagers declined in a broad range of categories during 2002, according to the latest Monitoring the Future survey. Use of MDMA (ecstasy) dropped for the first time since it was added to the annual survey in 1996, and marijuana use declined to its lowest level in 8 years. The numbers of 8th- 10th- and 12th-graders who said they had smoked cigarettes in the month preceding the survey fell by 12 percent, 17 percent, and 10 percent, respectively.
"Our science-based education and prevention efforts are paying off," said NIDA Acting Director Dr. Glen Hanson at a press conference announcing the 2002 survey findings. "Teenagers are considering the information in the messages before deciding whether or not to use drugs, and they are making better decisions. In this survey we see that teenagers are increasingly choosing not to use marijuana, not to use ecstasy and other club drugs, not to begin smoking or using alcohol. They should be congratulated." The Monitoring the Future survey (MTF) is conducted annually by the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research and has been supported by NIDA throughout its 27-year history. The survey tracks illicit drug use and attitudes toward drugs among 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-grade students. The 2002 study surveyed a representative sample of more than 43,000 students in 394 schools across the Nation. Students are asked about their attitudes toward drugs (Do they perceive a risk associated with trying the drug? Do they approve or disapprove of someone's trying the drug?) and about lifetime, past-year, and past-month drug use. ("Lifetime" refers to use at least once during a respondent's lifetime. "Past year" refers to an individual's drug use at least once during the year preceding their response to the survey. "Past month" refers to an individual's drug use at least once during the month preceding their response to the survey.)
Overall drug use -- the proportion of students who reported using any illicit drug in the preceding year -- declined in grades 8 and 10. "This is the first time since 1998 that we have seen a significant decline in overall illicit drug use among 10th-graders," said Dr. Lloyd Johnston, MTF principal investigator. MTF results for 2002 show that teenagers' attitudes about drugs are changing. Compared with 2001, this year more students in grades 10 and 12 said they believed use of MDMA once or twice is harmful, and the proportion of students who said they disapproved of trying MDMA increased in all three grades. "We are gratified, but not satisfied. NIDA will continue to generate and disseminate science-based information that leads to increases in understanding of the harm that comes from drug use," said Dr. Hanson. "These changes in perceived risk and disapproval are encouraging indicators of future downturns in drug use," Dr. Johnston observed. "This has proven to be the case with ecstasy. In 2000, only 38 percent of seniors said there was great risk of harm associated with trying ecstasy. That jumped to 48 percent in 2001 and increased again to 52 percent in 2002. These unusually rapid changes no doubt reflect the effects of media coverage of adverse events as well as NIDA's efforts to document and disseminate information about the adverse consequences of using ecstasy."
Similarly, the decreases in smoking reported for 2002 follow increases in the proportion of students who perceived a negative image of smoking. Roughly half of students in all three grades said they strongly agree with the statement "I dislike being near people who are smoking." Perhaps more important to teens, Dr. Johnston noted, is the social implication of changing attitudes toward smoking. "Roughly three-quarters of boys and girls in all three grades said they prefer to date nonsmokers. It now appears that taking up smoking makes a youngster less attractive, just the opposite of what cigarette advertising has been promising."
Significant changes reported in the 2002 MTF survey include the following:
Findings from the 2002 MTF report are available through NIDA's Web site, www.drugabuse.gov, and at the MTF Web site, http://monitoringthefuture.org.
Volume 17, Number 5 (January 2003) |
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