Reuters News Release. (1995, November 15). National survey results on drug use from the monitoring the future study, 1975-1974, vol. 1, secondary school students. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1995.

OVERVIEW

American teenagers used more illegal drugs and smoked more cigarettes in 1995 than in 1994. High School seniors’ use of illicit drugs (at least once in their lifetime) continues to rise in the 1990s, up in 1995 to 48.4 percent. The highest peak (according to the University of Michigan’s study for the Dept. of Health and Human Services) came in 1981 when 65.6 percent of high school seniors said they had used an illegal drug at least once in their lifetime. The low point on the wave came in 1992 when the figure for this group fell to 41 percent.

The proportion of 13-year-olds using any illegal drug almost doubled since 1991, from 11 percent to 21 percent. Illicit drug use among 15-year-olds has risen from 20 percent in 1991 to 33 percent in 1995.

LSD is being used much more by teenagers as well, and the use of inhalents remains high, especially among younger teens with 21.6 percent of 15-year-olds reporting using inhalents at least once.

Marijuana use is increasing by at least three percentage points among 13-, 15-, and 17-year-olds according to the study.

Smoking among high school seniors has steadily declined since 1975 when 73.6 reported having smoked in their lifetime to a low of 61.8 in 1992. Now we are seeing a slight rise in teenage smoking. Among 17-year-olds in 1995, 33 percent said they smoke cigarettes which represents a two percent rise from 1994.

College students reported a similar high in illicit drug use in 1975 (69.4 percent); by 1994 their use had declined to 45.5 percent. Illegal drugs other than marijuana and marijuana use among college students from 1975 to the present. Alcohol use remains in the 90 percentages (94.3 in 1975 and 91.2 in 1993). While the use of LSD has continued to decline among college students (10.3 in 1975 to 9.2 in 1994), the reverse trend is found among middle and junior high school students.

Overall, there is a continued trend of increasing illicit drug and nicotine use in the mid-nineties.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1. What most impresses you in this article? What is your chief concern about drug use among adolescents?
2. In your opinion, what caused the rise of illicit drug use in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and what brought about the decline of those figures during the late 1970s and 1980s?
3. What do you see as the chief cost to society, and danger to individuals, from the drug use noted in this article?
4. What do you think should be the response of government, schools, communities, churches and youth organizations to this problem?
5. What would you recommend to parents, schools, and youth organizations for drug and alcohol prevention and treatment.

IMPLICATIONS

1. Monitoring the Future has been the definitive youthful drug survey of the U.S. government since the late 1960s. Since it is a survey of high school seniors, it misses drop-outs, some of whose drug use is very high.
2. U.S. concern about drug abuse has always been geared to surburban and middle class youth indicating racist and classist biases. Inner city heroin use in the early 1960s raised little concern compared with the reaction to drug use among middle class youth in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The much higher punishments for crack as compared to cocain offenses may have some logic, but is seen as a racist and unfair judgment against black, inner city residents.
3. The need to get high on a chemical stimulant (to be stimulated or sedated)is increasing among young people. We must understand that need and deal with all its ramifications in a wholistic response. Rising drug abuse needs more than a "just say no" approach.
4. The use of illegal drugs is increasing most radically among younger people; we are now seeing greater experimentation and addiction among pre- and early-teenagers. Prevention programs must start at a younger age.