Fewer teens drink and smoke cigarettes than in any time in the past 30 years, health experts said Wednesday. But marijuana use represents a growing problem.
The 2011 Monitoring the Future survey suggests that programs and policies to impact teen drug use, such as those addressing smoking and alcohol over the past three decades, are reaping benefits. But teens still follow societal trends, experts said, and the easier availability of marijuana due to medical marijuana laws may be spurring more abuse of that drug.
Moreover, the 2011 survey found one in nine high school seniors had used synthetic marijuana in the past year.
The trend in teen marijuana use is largely responsible for an overall increase in youth drug use over the past four years, said the principal investigator of the study, Lloyd D. Johnston, of the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research. When marijuana is taken out of the equation the proportion of teens reporting they had used any illicit drug declined through the first half of the 2000s and has been stable over the past three years.
"We are heartened by some of the results ... but there is much more work to do," said Dr. Howard K. Koh, assistant secretary for health for the Department of Health and Human Services
The new survey, which polls 47,000 students nationwide in the eighth, 10th and 12th grades, found annual marijuana use ? defined as using marijuana at any time within the last year ? rose slightly in 2011, to 25% in all three grades combined. However, that's a sizable increase from the 2007 rate of 21.4%.
Daily or near-daily use of marijuana also rose among teens of all ages with 6.6% of the oldest students saying this was their practice. That is the highest rate since 1981.
"Put another way, one in every 15 high school seniors today is smoking pot on a daily or near-daily basis," Johnston said.
Students were also asked about their perceptions of risk, and the survey showed teens don't think of marijuana as dangerous. Because of that, "we can predict that use of marijuana is going to increase," said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
For the first time this year, researchers asked 12th grade students about synthetic marijuana. The finding ? 11% of all high school seniors had tried the substance ? surprised researchers.
Synthetic marijuana contains cannabinoids and acts similarly to marijuana but is thought to be more dangerous because of contamination with various substances. Sold by the names Spice or K2, the drug has been widely available online and in tobacco shops until recently. In February, the Drug Enforcement Administration redefined some of the chemicals found in the products as Schedule I drugs, which are considered highly abused, nonmedical substances. The U.S. House of Representatives last week passed legislation that would ban synthetic drugs. Several dozen states have also banned chemicals found in synthetic marijuana.
The 2011 survey was taken just after the DEA's action.
"Next year's results should tell us a lot more about how successful these new control efforts are," Johnston said.
That marijuana use has soared during the era of medical marijuana legalization cannot be ignored, said R. Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
"I would take it as a relative clue," he said. "We know that any substance that is legally available is more widely used."
Efforts to curb marijuana will need to follow those established to reduce tobacco and alcohol use, he said. Since 1991, the proportion of eighth-grade students who said they used alcohol within the past 30 days has declined by half, to 13%. Rates have also fallen in older students. Still about 40% of high school seniors say they have used alcohol within the past 30 days.
Binge drinking among seniors has also dropped from 41% in 1981 to 22% in 2011. That is still a high rate, Koh noted, considering the risk of injuries and death associated with getting drunk.
Cigarette usage fell in all three age groups, which was reassuring since the 2010 survey hinted that the decades-long decline in smoking may have begun to reverse, Johnston said. In all three grades combined, 11.7% of youths said they smoked within the past 30 days, down from 12.8% in the 2010 survey.
Declines were also seen in the use of inhalants, crack cocaine, the painkiller Vicodin, the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder drug Adderall and over-the-counter cold and cough medicines.
Use of prescription drugs without medical supervision remains a concern. In 2011, 22% of high school seniors said they had misused at least one prescription drug ? the same rate recorded in the 2007 survey.
shari.roan@latimes.com
Source: http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/news/science/~3/WKJwlOtTVI0/la-he-youth-drugs-20111215,0,7364188.story
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