Teens Still Do Drugs

I think that is the gist of this Reuters article, which tells us that while "the percentage of adolescents using alcohol and drugs declined between 2002 and 2006," if you break out the data in a different way, you realize that teens are still using drugs. Here's how the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration broke it out:

On an average day, nearly 1.2 million teenagers smoked cigarettes, 631,000 drank and 586,000 used marijuana.

Nearly 50,000 used inhalants, 27,000 used hallucinogens, 13,000 used cocaine and 3,800 used heroin.

In the United States in 2006, one-third of adolescents aged 12 to 17 drank alcohol in the past year, one-fifth used an illicit drug and one-sixth smoked. (the alcohol stat seems really low to me).

Or…

One any given day:

- Nearly 8,000 adolescents drank alcohol for the first time

- 4,300 adolescents used an illicit drug for the first time

- 4,000 smoked cigarettes for the first time

- 3,600 adolescents used marijuana for the first time

- 2,500 adolescents abused pain relievers for the first time.

More than 76,000 children and teens were in outpatient treatment for alcohol or drug abuse, the report said, and 10,000 in non-hospital residential treatment.

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