Teen Drug Addiction Facts

Teen drug addiction facts include a wide range of information from who is using, what they are using, and what age are they starting their drug abuse, etc. The abuse of prescription drugs, especially pain relievers is increasing. Many teenagers assume that prescription drugs are safe, when in fact they are highly addictive and can cause severe side effects.

Today, there is encouraging news from the National Institute on Drug Abuse regarding teen drug addiction facts. It appears that illicit drug use by teenagers is decreasing. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, which has been tracking teen drug addiction facts since the 1970's, the improvement so far is very modest, but at least the troublesome trends observed through most of the 1990's have begun to reverse direction. The troublesome trend is in reference to six years of steady increases in drug use among teenagers between 1991 and 1996.

The current trend relates to how young people perceive drugs. Many teens are reassessing the dangers and social acceptability of drugs. This may be due in part to the increased attention being paid to the issue of drugs by parents, community groups, the media, and the government. Many rock stars and actors no longer sing the praises of drugs as much as they have in the past.

Teen Drug Addiction Facts: Marijuana

Youths aged 12 to17 have constituted about two-thirds of the new users of marijuana in recent years, with young adults aged 18 to 25 constituting most of the remaining third. Recent rates of new use among youth in 1996-1998 (averaging 86.4 initiates per 1000 potential new users) were higher than they have ever been. Rates of new use for both youth and young adults decreased between 1998 and 1999 (from 85.2 to 73.0, and from 44.1 to 31.7, respectively).
The average age of initiation of marijuana use in 1999 was 17.0 years. Since 1992, the average age has ranged from 16.5 to 17.4. The average age of marijuana initiates has generally declined since 1965; during 1965-1969 it ranged from 19.0 to 20.4 years of age, and during 1970-1991 it ranged from 17.4 to 19.2 years of age.

Teen Drug Addiction Facts: Cocaine

The average age of cocaine initiates in 1999 was 19.5 years. This is younger than the average age of cocaine initiates for any year since 1973. From 1980 to 1993, the average age of cocaine initiates generally remained above 22 years.

Teen Drug Addiction Facts: Psychotherapeutics (nonmedical use of pharmaceutical drugs)

This category includes nonmedical use of any prescription-type pain reliever, tranquilizer, stimulant, or sedative. It does not include over-the-counter substances. Among the psychotherapeutics, pain relievers had the highest number of new users in 1999, a total of approximately 1,469,000 persons. This number has been increasing since the mid-1980s, when there were fewer than 400,000 initiates annually. Youths aged 12 to17 constitute the majority of this increase, from 78,000 in 1985 to 722,000 in 1999. The number of young adult initiates aged 18 to 25 increased from 166,000 to 492,000 during the same period.
The number of new users of stimulants was about 646,000 in 1999. This number is similar to the estimates for 1997 and 1998 (about 700,000 new users in each of those years). Since 1994, there have been more new users among youths aged 12 to 17 (322,000 in 1999) than among young adults aged 18 to 25 (213,000 in 1999).
There were approximately 642,000 new users of tranquilizers in 1999. While the number of new users of all ages in 1999 appears to be slightly lower than the number in 1998 (814,000), both the numbers of users for youth and young adults were similar to corresponding numbers in 1998. For youth, these estimated numbers of new users are the highest since 1965.

Teen Drug Addiction Facts: Alcohol

In 1998, approximately 5.1 million persons initiated the use of alcohol. With reported data back to 1965, this puts the number of new users as high or higher than any estimate since the early 1970s. The largest contributors to this rise are youths aged 12 to 17, who now constitute about 67 percent of total new initiates. The late 1980s and early 1990s were a recent low for the number of new initiates. Estimates of new users of alcohol among youth at that time were about 1.7 to 1.8 million per year, and initiates among young adults aged 18 to 25 were 0.9 to 1.1 million. In 1998, the number of new users among youth grew dramatically to 3.4 million, while the initiates among young adults increased slightly to 1.2 million. The 3.4 million new users aged 12 to 17 represents about 15 percent of all youth in the nation.

Teen Drug Addiction Facts: Heroin

There were an estimated 104,000 new users of heroin in 1999. This number of new initiates is similar to the number in 1998 (140,000). Comparisons for youth and young adults show no statistically significant difference between the 1998 and 1999 numbers of new initiates. The number of new initiates among those aged 18 to 25 (53,000) was larger than the number among those aged 12 to 17 (34,000), as has been the historic pattern.

Teen Drug Addiction Facts: Hallucinogens

In 1998, the estimated number of new users of hallucinogens (including LSD and PCP) was 1.2 million, which is the highest estimate since 1965. The number of new users in 1999 (1.4 million) appears to be even higher than in 1998, but this increase is not statistically significant. The estimated number of new users among youths aged 12 to 17 (669,000) and young adults aged 18 to 25 (604,000) in 1999 are similar to the all-time high numbers of initiates in 1998.