Monitoring the Future Annual Report Warns of Prescription Drug Use

The annual Monitoring the Future survey of drug use among 8th, 10th, and 12th graders was released Thursday. The news is mixed, the researchers report. Here's the opening of their press release:

Teen drug use continues down in 2006, particularly among older teens; but use of prescription-type drugs remains high ANN ARBOR, Mich.----The percentage of U.S. adolescents who use illicit drugs or drink alcohol continued a decade-long drop in 2006, according to the 32nd annual Monitoring the Future survey of 50,000 8th, 10th, and 12th graders in more than 400 schools nationwide. This year’s survey reveals that a fifth (21 percent) of today’s 8th graders, over a third (36 percent) of 10th graders, and about half (48 percent) of all 12th graders have ever taken any illicit drug during their lifetime. The proportion saying they used any illicit drug in the prior 12 months (called “annual prevalence”) continued to decline in 2006, and the rates (15 percent, 29 percent, and 37 percent in 8th, 10th, and 12th grades, respectively) are now down from recent peak levels in the mid-1990s by about one third in 8th grade, one quarter in 10th grade, and one eighth in 12th grade. However, the declines since last year are relatively small—only 0.7, 1.0, and 1.9 percentage points, respectively. (The 2005–2006 decline is statistically significant for the three grades combined, but not for any one grade taken individually.)

While marijuana use was down slightly, the use of Oxycontin, Vicodin, and other prescription drugs was up, as was the use of cough syrup. Hmmm...pot or cough syrup? Also, drug czar Walters crows about declines in the past five years, but we're still at about the same level as 1991 and not that far different from 1975. The peak year for teen drug use was 1979.