All Annotations of SafeState : Focus Areas : Drug & Alcohol Abuse : Research[Preview]

First saved by an anonymous user on 2008-05-12

•  On an average day in 2006, youth used the following substances for the first time: 7,970 drank alcohol for the first time, 4,348 used an illicit drug for the first time, 4,082 smoked cigarettes for the first time, 3,577 used marijuana for the first time, and 2,517 used pain relievers nonmedically for the first time. 
• Youth who used alcohol in the past month drank an average of 4.7 drinks per day on the days they drank and those who smoked cigarettes in the past month smoked an average of 4.6 cigarettes per day on the days they smoked. 
• Eighty percent of high school students and 44% of middle school students reported that they personally had witnessed one or more of the following on the grounds of their school: 1) illegal drugs used; 2) illegal drugs sold; 3) illegal drugs in the possession of students (either on them or in their lockers); 4) students high on drugs; 5) students who were drunk.  Furthermore, 31% of high school students and 9% of middle school students reported seeing such conduct at least once a week.
• 80 percent of high schoolers and 44 percent of middle schoolers see drugs used, kept, sold, classmates drunk and/or classmates high on school grounds.
• For marijuana, there was 89.8% agreement between self report in the past 30 days and urine test results. About 4.4% reported no use and tested positive and 5.8% reported use in the past 30 days and did not test positive.
• One-third of teens and nearly half of 17-year olds attend house parties where parents are present and teens are drinking, smoking marijuana or using cocaine, Ecstasy or prescription drugs, according to the National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse XI: Teens and Parents, an annual survey conducted by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University. 
• Since 2002, the number of students in this nation who attend schools where drugs are used, kept or sold has jumped 41 percent for high school students and 47 percent for middle school students.  This tenth annual school survey finds that 62 percent of high school students and 28 percent of middle school students attend drug infected schools, up from 44 percent of high school students and 19 percent of middle school students in 2002.  The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University, August 2005.
• This white paper finds that children and teens are three times likelier to be in treatment for marijuana than for alcohol, and six times likelier to be in treatment for marijuana than for all other illegal drugs combined.  The report also finds that there is a huge increase in emergency room admissions among 12- to 17-year olds where marijuana is implicated.