|
Home | About
Us | What's New | Data
Briefs | Our Funders | Help
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Illicit Drug Use Other than Marijuana
Headline In 2006, nearly one in 10 twelfth grade students reported using illicit drugs other than marijuana in the past month. (Figure 1) 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 to have a drug problem in the future.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, seizure, 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. The use of "illicit drugs other than marijuana" in the last month by twelfth grade students declined 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. (Figure 1) The percentage of tenth graders using illicit drugs other than marijuana increased during the early 1990s. However, between 2001 and 2006, the percentage of tenth graders using illicit drugs other than marijuana decreased slightly from 8 percent to 6 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 4 or 5 percent. (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, a gap which increases with age. (Figure 2) For example, in 2006 approximately 4 percent of white eighth graders had used illicit drugs within the last month, compared with 2 percent of black eighth grade students; in twelfth grade, however, only 4 percent of black students used illicit drugs other than marijuana, caompared with 10 percent of their white peers. Differences by Type of Drug In 2006, the most widely used illicit drugs other than marijuana among eighth graders were inhalants (4 percent of eighth graders), amphetamines (2 percent), and tranquilizers (1 percent). (Table 2) Among tenth graders, amphetamines were the most widely used illicit drug other than marijuana (4 percent), followed by tranquilizers (2 percent) and inhalants (2 percent). Similarly, among twelfth graders, other narcotics (which include other drugs that were not under a doctor's orders) (4 percent) and amphetamines were the most popular illicit drug other than marijuana (4 percent), followed by barbiturates (3 percent), tranquilizers (3 percent), and cocaine (3 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 2006, 3 percent of eighth graders planning to complete four years of college had used illicit drugs in the past month compared with 11 percent of eighth graders without such plans. As students get older, this gap decreases slightly. (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. (Table 1) Binge Drinking, Daily Cigarette Use, Marijuana Use 2007 estimates of use for individual illicit drugs are available for selected states and metropolitan areas through the Youth Risk Behavior Survey.
State estimates of any illicit drug use other than marijuana among 12- to 17-year-olds are available for all 50 states for 2005-2006 are available from the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, Table B-6.
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. 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 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 Programs and interventions that research has evaluated for this indicator. 1The Kaiser Family Foundation. "Substance Use and Risky Sexual Behavior: Attitudes and Practices Among Adolescents and Young Adults." February, 2002. 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. 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." Accessed August 30, 2007. 5McCluskey, Cynthia Perez, Krohn, Marvin D., Lizotte, Alan J., & Rodriguez, Monica L. (2002). "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. 7Office of National Drug Control Policy. "Drug Facts: Juveniles and Drugs." Accessed August 30, 2007. 8Office of National Drug Control Policy. "Drug Facts." Accessed August 30, 2007. 9Crowe, AH. Drug Identification and Testing Summary. U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. May 1998. 10Ibid, and Office of National Drug Control Policy. "Drug Facts: Juveniles and Drugs." 11U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Healthy People 2010. Washington, DC: January 2000. Goal 26-10. 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. 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, amphetimines, barbituates, 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 1976-2006 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 1976-2006 from original analysis by Child Trends of Monitoring the Future. Data for Types of Illicit Drugs, 2006: (Table 2) Johnston, L. D., O'Malley, P. M., Bachman, J. G. & Schulenberg, J. E. (December 21, 2006). Teen drug use continues down in 2006, particularly among older teens; but use of prescription-type drugs remains high. University of Michigan News and Information Services: Ann Arbor, MI. Monitoring the Future 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), 1976-2006 [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].
Approximate Date of Next Update November 2008
|
 |
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Copyright © 2003 Child Trends. All rights reserved. Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Contact Us |
|
