“Monitoring the Future 2009”
The federal survey, released Monday, tracks drug use among U.S. teens. It finds that, following years of decline, marijuana use among American adolescents has been gradually increasing within the past two years. Researchers also found that more eighth, 10th and 12th graders are getting high on prescription pain pills and attention-deficit drugs. At the same time, fewer teens report smoking cigarettes, binge drinking and methamphetamine use.
According to data, about 12 percent of 8th-graders, 27 percent of 10th-graders and a third of 12th-graders reported marijuana use within the past year. The percentage of eighth-graders who saw a "great risk" in occasionally smoking marijuana fell from about 50 percent in 2004 to just under 45 percent in 2009. The perceived danger of using Ecstasy once or twice also fell among 8th-graders, from just under 43 percent in 2004 to 26 percent in 2009. By all measures, alcohol remained the most widely used illicit substance among teens. Nearly 44 percent of 12th-graders reporting drinking in the past month, yet all three grades reported drops in binge drinking for 2004-2009.
Since 1975, Monitoring the Future has conducted annual, nationwide surveys of U.S. teens in school. The 2009 survey included a total of 46,097 8th-, 10th- and 12th-graders in 389 secondary schools. Research was conducted by a team of professors at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research.
