Kids and drugs: Worrisome signs, here and on the horizon

The federal government's annual report of kids' alcohol and drug abuse and attitudes about that abuse seems reassuring enough: Compared with that of recent years, marijuana use is down, use of hallucinogens is way down and use of methamphetamine is way, way down.

But the researchers and public officials who crunch those numbers warned that some of statistics gleaned from an annual survey of 46,000 American eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders are worrisome.

Marijuana use is a good example. American students' marijuana use has declined steadily since the mid-1990s. Now, one in three high school seniors says he or she has smoked marijuana at some point in the past 30 days; just over one in four 10th-graders has done so; and 11.8% of eighth-graders acknowledge they've smoked pot in the past month.

While those numbers represent a steady decline in pot use among U.S. students over the past 15 years, it's a decline that has stalled in the past five years. And kids' attitudes about marijuana use suggest a reversal may be ahead. In 1991, 58% of eighth-graders said they believed occasional marijuana use is harmful. By last year, that number had declined to 48% last year and this year slumped to 45%.

Gil Kerlikowske, the Obama administration's drug policy advisor, called such numbers "a warning sign."

"When beliefs soften, drug use worsens," said Kerlikowske, whose office is expected to release its first draft of policy initiatives to combat and treat drug abuse in February. "Drug use becomes more acceptable," Kerlikowske added in a news conference Monday morning in Washington, D.C.

University of Michigan researcher Lloyd Johnston, who oversees the yearly survey of American school kids, said there was "serious softening" in the risks kids perceived in use of the party drug Ecstasy, of LSD and of inhalants. He called the survey results "an early warning sign [that] a new generation of kids are interested ... in rediscovering these drugs, because they don't understand why they shouldn't be using them." 

Closer to home, the survey shows that U.S. adolescents continue to raid their parents' and their friends' medicine chests for drugs to abuse. Use of prescription painkillers is at an all-time high, with one in 10 high school seniors reporting they have taken Vicodin for nonmedical reasons in the past year, and one in 20 seniors reporting the nonmedical use of Oxycontin in that period.

Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which has commissioned the survey for each of the past 35 years, added that teenagers' use of prescription stimulant drugs is holding steady, with just over one in 20 10th- and 12th-graders reporting they have taken "speed" prescribed to many kids in treatment of ADHD symptoms. Volkow said that in many cases, teenagers are taking these drugs before tests or study sessions as "cognitive enhancers." While fewer kids report they're taking Ritalin, the survey detected that much of that decline has merely shifted to Adderall, a newer ADHD drug.

The officials said that kids report some confidence that prescription drugs are less harmful -- in part because they are prescribed by doctors and not produced in street labs. In the survey's first accounting of where kids get the drugs they take, it found that two in three who reported illicit drug use said they got the drugs from a friend or relative. Almost one in five said he or she got drugs with a prescription from a doctor.

-- Melissa Healy 

Comments

[MarkD]

And this is news because big pharma is losing money from adderall abuse? Waaahhh.

[Anonymous]

Kids love drugs. People in general love drugs. Society has a lot more really messed up crap to worry about before we go for another moral panic about teenagers smoking dope...

[Todd]

Kids try pot and realize just how full of it Gil and the DEA is, then they think well jeez if pot didn't make me crazy or out of control maybe the rest aint so bad. It is a FACT that no one has any faith or trust in the DEA and it's associates because of there ignorant stance on pot. If they just legalized and taxed pot with one simple rule of no commercialization and you can only have 10 plants in your possession at any time a good majority of the problems would be solved. Plus lets not forget about our bloodiest war that has caused the death's of over 14,000 Mexicans within the past few years, the drug war. The bottom line is that we need a NEW strategy and we need it to come from those not associated AT ALL with our current failed policies. Just like all other jobs, when someone fails miserably at their job over and over again, you fire them, that's what needs to happen here.

[Nic]

So when kids realize that their government has been lying to them about all the "dangers" associated with marijuana we should be scared? Kids should not smoke marijuana just like they shouldn't smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol. But we also should stop with this ignorant and arrogant mindset on the war on drugs and realize it has FAILED and try to come up with NEW policies!

[Anonymous]

The war on drugs is an epic failure given the unbelievably high price in money, lives, and liberty. As it was with our 1st prohibition disaster, the laws cause more damage than the drugs.

[Monkey]

The article saddens me, and the comments make me sick. This is relevant news because children die. They are exposed to these dangers at a point in their development when they are extremely vulnerable. They get hooked, can't function in society, their lives become hopeless, they use more drugs, and eventually cycle to the point that the overdose and die. It's sad to watch, and it's sadder still to think that the government cannot do anything to control this issue.

[fancy nancy party supplies]

now this should be one of the top concerns not only by the authorities who take good care on this matter but parents as well should help on educating their children regarding on this matter. Establishing good bond between the parents and their children will be a great help to the child's development on any aspect of their life. Through this, a good moral and mind of the children set will be establish that will surely tell them that using drugs is not a good thing. Exposing them also to recreational activities will surely help.

[Mike]

"University of Michigan researcher Lloyd Johnston, who oversees the yearly survey of American school kids, said there was "serious softening" in the risks kids perceived in use of the party drug Ecstasy, of LSD and of inhalants. "

You mean that the UK scientific advisory panel that said that ecstasy, LSD, and inhalants were less harmful to one's person and society at large than alcohol and tobacco was flawed?

Unfortunately, ecstacy and LSD are, when relatively pure, and used in appropriate dosages to produce the desired effects, essentially harmless.