Who’s at Risk?

Teen Statistics on Substance Abuse
	Teenagers whose parents talk to them regularly about the dangers of drugs are 42% less likely to use drugs than those whose parents don’t, yet only 1 in 4 teens reports having these conversations.
	Alcohol is the most commonly used drug among young people.
	Alcohol kills 6 ½ times more youth than all other illicit drugs combined.
	Youth who drink alcohol are 50 times more likely to use cocaine than young people who never drink alcohol.
	40% of those who started drinking at age 14 or younger later developed alcohol dependence, compared with 10% of those who began drinking at age 20 or older.
	65% of the youth who drink alcohol report that they get the alcohol they drink from family and friends.
	10% of teens say that they have been to a rave, and ecstasy was available at more than two-thirds of these raves.
	Although it is illegal to sell and distribute tobacco products to youth under age 18 most underage smokers are able to buy tobacco products.
	Underage drinking cost the U.S. more than $58 million every year enough to buy every public school student a state-of-the-art computer.
	28% of teens know a friend or classmate who has used ecstasy, with 17% knowing more than one user.
	By the 8th grade, 52% of adolescents have consumed alcohol, 41% have smoked cigarettes, and 20% have used marijuana.
	In 2000, more than 60% of teens said drugs were used, kept, or sold at their school.
	50% of high school seniors report drinking alcohol in the past 30 days with 32% report being drunk at least once in the same period.
	Most people begin smoking as adolescents. Among youth who smoke, the average age of initiation is 12.5 years of age.
	Drivers age 21-29 drive the greatest proportion of their miles drunk. (Miller et al., 1996c).
Patterns of Use Statistics
	Most Americans are aware of the risks associated with substance abuse, but the perception of risk rises with age. Each successive age group from age 12-17 to 35 and older reports increasingly greater risk associated with substance abuse.
	Although the non-medical use of Oxycontin was rare in 2000, data shows evidence of an emerging problem. The estimated number of lifetime non-medical Oxycontin users increased from 221,000 in 1999 to 399,000 in 2000.
	Males are almost four times as likely as females to be heavy drinkers, nearly one and a half times as likely to smoke a pack or more of cigarettes a day and twice as likely to smoke marijuana weekly. These gender differences are closing among youth.
	Substance abuse is a chronic, relapsing health condition. Substance abusers may be in treatment multiple times – or make repeated attempts to quit on their own – before they are successful.
	Among 12th graders, ecstasy use rose from 5.6% in 1999 to 8.2% in 2000, and for the first time, 8th graders showed increased rates in their use of ecstasy as well.
	In 2000, approximately 6.4 million people had tried ecstasy at least once in their lifetime. This is more than the estimated 5.1 million lifetime users in 1999.