Illegal-drug use by teenagers has continued to decline for a decade, but abuse of prescription medications among youths is rising, a federally funded survey has found.
“Monitoring the Future” is available from Monitoring the Future: A Continuing Study of American Youth.
According to the nationally representative survey of 50,000 middle and high school students conducted last year, use of any illicit drug in the 12 months prior to the survey has fallen since 1996 by 33 percent among 8th graders, 25 percent among 10th graders, and 10 percent among 12th graders.
The only drugs that showed slight increases in usage over the 2004 survey were sedatives, inhalants, and OxyContin, a prescription pain reliever.
The survey was sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan.
