Teens and drugs: After long decline, drug use climbs

[frigidmagi]

CSM

[quote]After a decade of declining drug use among US teens, dependence on alcohol, marijuana, and Ecstasy is reported to be on the rise.

The reversal in the trend line is startling to drug-prevention advocates, who say high-profile media campaigns and parental involvement helped to curb all categories of teen drug use between 1998 and 2008. In 2008, for example, use of alcohol and marijuana decreased 30 percent among ninth and 12th graders from the year before; methamphetamine abuse was down 60 percent.

These findings, published last week by the Partnership for a Drug Free America and the MetLife Foundation, show that teen usage swung back up last year for the first time since 1998. Another study released late last year, by the federal government, also showed rising use of marijuana among certain teen subsets.

Among the findings released this week regarding teens between the ninth and 12th grades:

• Yearly and monthly marijuana use increased to 38 and 25 percent, respectively.

• Teen alcohol use grew to 39 percent from the previous year, an 11 percent rise.

• Thirteen percent of teens say they tried Ecstasy last year, a 30 percent increase from 2008.

• Seventy-five percent of teenagers say they have friends who get high at parties, a 9 percent increase from 2008.

Partnership Strategy director Sean Clarkin cites several reasons for the dramatic reversal: a continuing decrease in federal funding for drug-prevention programs in schools and the media, the public conversation about the legalization of marijuana, and “the growing proliferation of pro-drug cues in popular culture,â€