Risky Behavior - Popular Illicit Substance Use Trends: Young People

The war on drugs notwithstanding, young people like to experiment with illicit drugs, and some young people like drugs so much that they become regular users.¹⁵ Certain drugs may wax and wane in popularity ("crack" cocaine, for example), but the three that never go out of style are alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana. The public health community and parents are concerned because unhealthy habits like these are difficult to change once acquired. There may be cause for celebration, though, because the data shown on the chart indicates that the number of 12- to-17-year-old current users¹⁶ of alcohol and cigarettes has steadily declined since 1985. Decline in drug use among young people suggests future declines in all age groups.

The data are shown in tabular form below. Note the upsurge in marijuana use in the mid- 1990s. The U.S. government attempts to explain it¹⁷: "the coming of age of a new generation of youths who have had little direct exposure to the negative consequences of drug use in an era of declining drug use … a decrease in drug prevention efforts; and reduced governmental and media attention to the drug problem. Another relevant factor might be the influence of parents who, as members of the Baby Boom generation, belonged to cohorts heavily involved in marijuana use in their own youth." The same report refers to studies showing similar patterns of behavior between parents and children in regard to alcohol and cigarettes. Our society has an ambivalent attitude toward drugs, an attitude that has led lately to increased calls for decriminalization.

Percentage of 12-17-Year-Olds Who Ever Used and Currently Use the Three Most Popular Drugs

Drug	Ever used			Current user
	1985	1990	1998	1985	1990	1995	1997	1998	1999
Marijuana/hashish	20.1	12.7	17.0	10.2	4.4	8.2	9.4	8.3	7.0
Alcohol	56.1	48.8	37.3	41.2	32.5	21.1	20.5	19.1	19.0
Cigarettes	50.7	45.1	35.8	29.4	22.4	20.2	19.9	18.2	15.9

A note about drug use data: The data shown above were collected in classrooms by researchers for the Monitoring the Future Survey (they have been collecting such data since 1975). Among the best known other organizations collecting substance use data are the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHS), which has collected data in homes since 1971, and the Pride Survey,¹⁸ which collects data in classrooms. Such data are often contradictory and are subject to underreporting for many reasons, including the likelihood of drug users being truant, homeless, or unwilling to be candid with interviewers.

In Monitoring the Future, the authors state: "In the last third of the twentieth century we saw an epidemic of illicit drug use among American young people that is unparalleled in this country's history." The "epidemic" was noticed in the late 1960s, when recreational drug use became popular among young, white, middle-class youths. President Nixon declared drug abuse "public enemy number one" in 1971. The war on drugs began with a government campaign to educate people about the dangers of drug use. At the time, heroin was a scourge in urban, black communities. We look at discrimination based on choice of drugs later in this chapter, but first we will look at trends in youth experimentation with the less common illegal substances.

Sources: NCES. The Condition of Education 1999; U-M. Survey Research Center. Institute of Social Research. Monitoring the Future Study: http://nces.ed.gov/; Bureau of Justice Statistics. "Drug and Crime Facts." Monitoring the Future National Results on Adolescent Drug Use: Overview of Key Findings 2001, 2002: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ "Parental Influences on Adolescent Marijuana Use and the Baby Boom Generation: Findings from the 1979-1996 National Household Surveys on Drug Abuse." Online. Available at http://www.samhsa.gov.