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Teens' Drug Use Declines Dramatically, According to MTF Survey Results |
Tearoff
Vol. 19, No. 1 (April 2004) |
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Falling to levels not seen in nearly a decade, past-month illicit drug use among the Nation's youth declined by 11 percent--from 19.4 to 17.3 percent--between 2001 and 2003, according to the newly released 2003 Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey. This reduction translates into roughly 400,000 fewer adolescent drug users than in 2001 and exceeds President Bush's call in February 2002 to reduce drug use among youth by 10 percent in 2 years. The 2003 findings emerged from responses provided by nearly 50,000 students in 392 public and private schools across the country. In addition to a decline in the numbers of teens reporting drug use in the month before being surveyed (past-month use), teens' drug use in the year before being surveyed (past-year use) fell by 11 percent, from 31.8 to 28.3 percent; teens claiming to have ever used drugs (lifetime use) also dropped--from 41 to 37.4 percent, a 9-percent reduction. "The overall reduction in drug use by America's young people is heartening," said NIDA Director Dr. Nora Volkow. "We are confident that our concerted effort to provide students and teachers with informative, accurate information about addiction and drug abuse will contribute to further reductions in drug use." The MTF survey, launched in 1975, measures drug, alcohol, and cigarette use and attitudes about use among 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-graders nationwide; the younger two grades were added in 1991. Participants report their past-month, past-year, and lifetime drug use behaviors. Funded by NIDA, the survey has been conducted annually since its inception by the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research. Survey results help identify potential drug problem areas and ensure that resources are targeted to areas of greatest need. MTF typically focuses on changes in use and attitudes among individual grades from the prior year. However, at the request of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, MTF researchers conducted special analyses, for all three grades combined, of the changes between 2001 to 2003 in students' use of illicit drugs, alcohol, and tobacco and in their anti-drug attitudes. Key substance use patterns that emerged between 2001 and 2003 are as follows:
Volume 19, Number 1 (April 2004) |
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