They need to understand how serious addiction is and just how quickly is can form. Some examples of Schedule IV drugs are narcotics, muscle relaxants, and commonly prescribed medications for anxiety and depression, such teen drug abuse as alprazolam. Drugs “with a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependance” are classified as Schedule III. This category includes dozens of hormones, synthetic hormones, and hormone derivatives.
Some teenagers are more at risk of developing an alcohol or drug problem than others. The 2021 World Drug Report provides a global overview of the supply and demand of opiates, cocaine, cannabis, amphetamine-type stimulants and new psychoactive substances (NPS), as well as their impact on health, taking into account the possible effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Drug Policy Alliance has a series of resources for educators and parents, including a drug education curriculum and tips for talking to teens about drugs.
Trends & Statistics
For the 2022 survey, 48% of 12th grade students identified as male, 47% identified as female, 1% identified as other, and 4% selected the “prefer not to answer” option. When parents are angry or when teens are frustrated, it’s best to delay the talk. If you aren’t prepared to answer questions, parents might let teens know that you’ll talk about the topic at a later time. According to the most recent Monitoring the Future Survey from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, 39 percent of college students use marijuana—the highest levels of use among college students in the past three decades.
- Teenagers typically exaggerate how common it is to smoke, drink, and use particular substances, which could give off the impression that substance usage is acceptable.
- “ Among state prisoners, an estimated 3 in 5 white (60%) and Hispanic (62%) females and about 1 in 2 black (50%) females were mothers with minor children (table 3).
- “ Higher availability among both the more widely used drugs and also older age groups is consistent with the notion that availability is largely attained through friendship circles. (Friends clearly are the leading source through which 12th graders obtain prescription drugs, as discussed above.) The differences among age groups may also reflect less willingness and/or motivation on the part of those who deal drugs to establish contact with younger adolescents.
“ Black/African American 12th grade students had higher levels of alcohol use than Hispanics and Whites in 2022. The percentage of 12th grade students who had a drink of alcohol in the past 12 months was 57% for Black/African American teens, compared to 41% for Hispanics and 32% for Whites. Prevalence levels for getting drunk in the past 12 months for the three racial/ethnic groups were 37%, 21%, and 16%, respectively. Prevalence of 50using a flavored alcoholic beverage in the last 12 months was 42%, 28%, and 17%, respectively. Binge drinking in the last 30 days was also highest among Black/African American 12th graders, at 16%, compared to 8% for Hispanics and 5% for Whites. “ Hispanic 12th grade students have the highest 12-month prevalence for a few drugs, but they are drugs with low prevalence and the difference is small in terms percentage points. For example, they have the highest level of dissolvable tobacco, by a difference of 0.7 percentage points (prevalence is 1.8% for Hispanics compared to 1.1% for Black/African American and White students). They also have the highest level of synthetic marijuana, by a difference of 0.2 percentage points (prevalence is 2.8% for Hispanic, 2.6% for Black/African American and 1.4% for White students). “ Substantial differences were found in perceived availability of the various drugs (Tables 9-10 to 9-12). In 2022 the percentage of 12th graders reporting it would be fairly easy or easy to get a drug varied from 12% or less for heroin, crack, and crystal methamphetamines to 69% and above for alcohol, vaping devices, and marijuana. Moreover, use of prescription drugs, heroin, ecstasy (MDMA), cocaine, crack, sedatives, and abuse of inhalants among adolescents all decreased.
Alcohol Addiction Resources
“Alcohol has long been the substance with the highest level of availability. It has been at 78% or higher up to 2022 in all years since its addition to the 12th grade survey in 1999. Over the past decade it has declined somewhat from 92% in 2009 to 78% in 2022.” “ Although availability of alcohol among 12th grade students in 2022 was at its second lowest level recorded since first measured in 1999, at 78% it is still very high (Tables 9-10 through 9-12 and Figure 9-5a). “Levels of annual marijuana use today are considerably lower than the historic highs observed in the late 1970s, when more than half of 12th graders had used marijuana in the past 12 months. This high point marked the pinnacle of a rise in marijuana use from relatively negligible levels before the 1960s. “The 2017 HKCS found that marijuana use increases by grade level, with 11.0% of 9th graders, 17.7% of 10th graders, 23.7% of 11th graders, and 25.7% of 12th reporting use in the past 30‐days. “ Marijuana use overall—that is, without the question specifying any specific method of use—has one of the lowest rates of noncontinuation of all drugs (Table 6-5a). In 2022, the noncontinuation rate was only 20%, and has hovered in a narrow window between 18% and 26% over the last two decades. “ Noncontinuation of smokeless tobacco was near its highest recorded level in 2022 at 69%. One possibility is that nicotine vaping is displacing teen use of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, a hypothesis that warrants close consideration.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized expansion of Medicare coverage to include opioid treatment programs delivering MAT (medication-assisted-treatment) effective Jan. 1, 2020. If you’re a teen and you feel like you can no longer control your substance use, consider finding someone to talk to. If you’re not yet comfortable talking with your parents, reach out to a teacher, school counselor, or other adult you trust. They may call you a hypocrite because they know you drink alcohol or have tried drugs before. You should be honest and explain that your use hasn’t harmed your life — or that it has, if that’s the case.
Teenage Drug Abuse Statistics – Negatives Seen in Teen Drug Abuse Facts
This year, 13% of students who took the survey identified as Black or African American, 1% as American Indian or Alaska Native, 3% as Asian, 25% as Hispanic, 1% as Middle Eastern, 41% as white, and 16% as more than one of the preceding categories. The survey also asks respondents to identify as male, female, other, or prefer not to answer. For the 2023 survey, 48% of students identified as male, 47% identified as female, 1% identified as other, and 4% selected the “prefer not to answer” option. If you are starting a conversation about substance use, choose a place where you and your teen are both comfortable. Alcohol and nicotine or tobacco may be some of the first, easier-to-get substances for teens.
“ Among secondary schools with any sworn law enforcement officer present at least once a week, a lower percentage of schools in cities reported having an officer who carried a firearm (87 percent) compared with schools in towns (97 percent) and schools in suburban and rural areas (95 percent each; Spotlight 1). “Marijuana has been one of the most consistently available drugs and has shown only small variations over the years (see Tables 9-10 through 9-12 and Figure 9-5a). The nine point drop in 12th grade after the pandemic from 79% in 2019 to 70% in 2021 stands out as the largest two-year decrease for this measure over the life of the study. This lower level persisted in 2022. Previous to the pandemic between 80% and 90% of American 12th graders since 1975 reported they could readily obtain marijuana. “ Drug availability levels are lowest in 8th grade. Even so, in 2022 marijuana was reported as readily available by about one in four (26%) 8th grade students. “ Levels of perceived risk for regular nicotine vaping are substantially less than the levels for regular cigarette use of one or more packs a day. In 2022, 45% of 12th graders perceived a great risk from regular nicotine vaping, compared to 72% for regular cigarette use.
They may be caused by the substance directly or indirectly through the aggravation of co-occurring psychiatric conditions. More frequent and severe symptoms are frequently linked to the usage of cocaine in “crack” form. Cocaine can potentially worsen numerous mental diseases and cause various psychiatric symptoms. While the completed survey from 2021 represents about 75% of the sample size of a typical year’s data collection, the results were gathered from a broad geographic and representative sample, so the data were statistically weighted to provide national numbers. This year, 11.3% of the students who took the survey identified as African American, 16.7% as Hispanic, 5.0% as Asian, 0.9% as American Indian or Alaska Native, 13.8% as multiple, and 51.2% as white.
“ Among minor children of parents in state prison, 1% were younger than age 1, about 18% were ages 1 to 4, and 48% were age 10 or older. “ The average age of a minor child among parents in state prison was 9 years old (table 4). “ Among federal prisoners, about 3 in 5 black (64%) and Hispanic (64%) males and 3 in 10 white (34%) males were fathers with minor children.
