Illicit Drug Use Other than Marijuana
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Headline

In 2003, nearly one in ten twelfth grade students reported using illicit drugs other than marijuana in the past month. (See Figure 1)

Importance

Use of illicit drugs is associated with many harmful behaviors and can cause both short and long-term health problems. Students who use illicit drugs are more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior1 and delinquency and crime,^2,3 and may use increasingly more dangerous drugs.⁴ Additionally, though causality is complex, students using illicit drugs often have problems in school, including low attendance rates and poor academic performance, and are more likely to drop out or be expelled.^5,6 Youth who use illicit drugs are more likely to have poor relationships with their families and peers.⁷

There are also many health risks associated with illicit drug use. The physical problems associated with illicit drug use are numerous and vary depending on the type of drug used. Physical problems can include: abnormal heart rates, seizures, kidney failure, respiratory failure, and brain damage.⁸ Additionally, youth who use illicit drugs have higher death rates than do their peers because of increased risk of accidents (such as car accidents), suicide, homicide, and illness.⁹ There are also many mental health problems that are linked to illicit drug use including: depression, anxiety, paranoia, hallucinations, developmental lags, delusions, and mood disturbances.¹⁰

Illicit drugs other than marijuana include LSD, other hallucinogens, cocaine, heroin, other narcotics, amphetamines, barbiturates, or tranquilizers not under a doctor's orders.

Trends

The use of "illicit drugs other than marijuana" in the last month by twelfth grade students shrank from 17 percent in 1980 to 6 percent in 1992. It then increased during the mid-1990s, and has stayed fairly constant at around 10 percent since 1997. (See Figure 1) The percentage of tenth graders using illicit drugs other than marijuana increased during the early 1990s. However, between 2001 and 2003, the percentage of tenth graders using illicit drugs other than marijuana decreased slightly from 8 percent to 7 percent. Among eighth graders, the percentage of students using illicit drugs other than marijuana increased in the early 1990s, and has remained fairly constant since then at around 5 percent. (See Figure 1)

Differences by Race

Black students are much less likely than white students to have used illicit drugs other than marijuana in the past month. (See Figure 2) Among twelfth graders in 2003, 4 percent of black students used illicit drugs other than marijuana, compared with 11 percent of white students of the same age. Similar differences are found among eighth and tenth graders.

Differences by Type of Drug

In 2004, the most recent year that estimates by type of drug are available, the most widely used illicit drugs other than marijuana among eighth graders were inhalants (5 percent of eighth graders), amphetamines (2 percent), and tranquilizers (1 percent). (See Table 2) Among tenth graders, amphetamines were the most widely used illicit drug other than marijuana (4 percent), followed by inhalants (2 percent) and tranquilizers (2 percent). Similarly, among twelfth graders, amphetamines were the most popular illicit drug other than marijuana (5 percent), followed by tranquilizers (3 percent), barbiturates (3 percent), and cocaine (2 percent).

Differences by College Plans

Students who plan to complete college are less likely than those who do not plan to complete college to have used illicit drugs other than marijuana in the past month. In 2003, 4 percent of eighth graders planning to complete four years of college had used illicit drugs in the past month compared with 12 percent of eighth graders without such plans. As students get older, this gap decreases slightly. (See Table 1)

Differences by Parental Education

In eighth and tenth grades, students whose parents did not complete high school are more likely than those whose parents are more educated to have used illicit drugs other than marijuana in the past month. By twelfth grade, however, students are about equally likely to use illicit drugs other than marijuana, regardless of their parents' education. (See Table 1)

Related Indicators

Binge Drinking, Daily Cigarette Use, Marijuana Use

State and Local Estimates

2005 estimates of use for individual illicit drugs are available for selected states and metropolitan areas through the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, available at: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/SS/SS5505.pdf (See Table 33 and Table 35)

Estimates of any illicit drug use other than marijuana among 12- to 17-year-olds are available for all 50 states for 2003-2004 from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (formerly called the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse) at: http://oas.samhsa.gov/2k4State/appB.htm#TabB.6

NOTE: Estimates of drug use from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, used to generate these state-level estimates, are generally lower than estimates generated by the Monitoring the Future Survey (MTF). Since the MTF was the source of the national estimates presented in this indicator, users should not make direct comparisons of estimates made from the two sources. For information on methodological differences in the surveys that may be causing these differences in estimates, see Harrison, L.D. (2001). "Understanding the differences in youth drug prevalence rates produced by the MTF, NHSDA, and YRBS studies."Journal of Drug Issues, 31(3), pp. 665-694.

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International Estimates

International estimates of lifetime and 30-day illicit drug use are available from the European School Survey on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD) 1999 report, available at: http://www.monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/espad_pr.pdf

National Goals

Through its Healthy People 2010 initiative, the federal government has set a national goal to increase the "proportion of adolescents not using alcohol or any illicit drugs during the past 30 days."¹¹

More information is available at: http://www.health.gov/healthypeople/document/html/objectives/26-10.htm

Additionally, since 1988, the Office of National Drug Control Policy has issued a yearly report that includes long-term goals to achieve the ultimate objective of "a drug-free America." The 2002 report outlines a two-year goal for "a 10 percent reduction in current use of illegal drugs by the 12-17 age group" and a five-year goal for a 25 percent reduction for the same age group.

What Works: Programs and Interventions that May Influence this Indicator

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Research References

¹The Kaiser Family Foundation. "Substance Use and Risky Sexual Behavior: Attitudes and Practices Among Adolescents and Young Adults." February, 2002. Available online at: http://www.outproud.org/pdf/CASASurveySnapshot.pdf

²Wilson, JJ (Admin.). "Juvenile Justice Bulletin: Co-occurrence of Delinquency and Other Problem Behaviors." U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. November 2000. Available online at http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles1/ojjdp/182211.pdf

³Windle, Michael & Mason, W. Alex. "General and Specific Predictors of Behavioral and Emotional Problems Among Adolescents," Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 12(1): 49-62.

⁴Office of National Drug Control Policy. "Drug Facts: Juveniles and Drugs." Available online at http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/drugfact/juveniles/

⁵McCluskey, Cynthia Perez, Krohn, Marvin D., Lizotte, Alan J., & Rodriguez, Monica L. "Early Substance Use and School Achievement: An Examination of Latino, White, and African American Youth," Journal of Drug Issues, 32(3): 921-943.

⁶Malignant Neglect: Substance Abuse and America's Schools. The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University: September 2001. Available online at http://www.casacolumbia.org/pdshopprov/files/80624.pdf

⁷Office of National Drug Control Policy. "Drug Facts: Juveniles and Drugs." Available online at http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/drugfact/juveniles/

⁸Office of National Drug Control Policy. "Drug Facts" Available online at http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/drugfact/index.html

⁹Crowe, AH. Drug Identification and Testing Summary. U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. May 1998. Available online at http://www.ojjdp.ncjrs.org/PUBS/drugid/contents.html

¹⁰Ibid, and Office of National Drug Control Policy. "Drug Facts: Juveniles and Drugs." Available online at http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/drugfact/juveniles/

¹¹U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Healthy People 2010. Washington, DC: January 2000. Goal 26-10. http://www.health.gov/healthypeople/document/html/objectives/26-10.htm .

¹²Monitoring the Future National Survey Results on Drug Use, 1975-2000. Volume 1: Secondary School Students (NIH Publication No. 01-4924), Table 2-1 footnote a.

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Definition

Illicit drug use other than marijuana is defined as students who answered "one or more times" to the question "On how many occasions (if any) have you used any illicit drug other than marijuana during the last 30 days?"

"For 12th graders only: Use of "any illicit drug other than marijuana" includes any use of LSD, other hallucinogens, cocaine, or heroin, or any use of other narcotics, amphetamines, barbiturates, or tranquilizers not under a doctor's orders. For 8th and 10th graders: Use of "any illicit drug other than marijuana" includes any use of LSD, other hallucinogens, crack, other cocaine, or heroin, or any use of amphetamines or tranquilizers not under a doctor's orders. The use of other narcotics and barbiturates has been excluded, because these younger respondents appear to overreport use (perhaps because they include the use of nonprescription drugs in their answers)."¹²

Note: The 1976-2003 estimates may differ from published estimates due to different coding responses for missing data and to small differences between the publicly available sample weights and those used by Monitoring the Future staff. Additionally, for twelfth graders, Child Trends uses data from the core questionnaire while Monitoring the Future staff also uses data from various forms.

Data Source

Data for 2004 from Johnston, L. D., O'Malley, P. M., Bachman, J. G. & Schulenberg, J. E. (December 21, 2004). Overall teen drug use continues gradual decline; but use of inhalants rises. University of Michigan News and Information Services: Ann Arbor, MI. [On-line]. Available: http://www.monitoringthefuture.org ; accessed 12/22/04.

Data for 1976-2003 from original analysis by Child Trends of Monitoring the Future survey data.

Raw Data Source

Bachman, Jerald G., Lloyd D. Johnston, and Patrick M. O'Malley. Monitoring the Future: A Continuing Study of American Youth (8th, 10th, and 12th-Grade Surveys), 1976-2003 [Computer files]. Conducted by University of Michigan, Survey Research Center. ICPSR ed. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [producer and distributor].
ICPSR: http://www.icpsr.umich.edu
Monitoring the Future: http://www.monitoringthefuture.org/

Approximate Date of Next Update

November 2005

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