Teen Drug Use
From 2003 to 2013, the percentage of 12th graders reporting current drug use increased by 1.4 percentage points.
Teen Drug Use: Risks, Norms, and Choices
By John P. Walters
Teen drug use has been on the rise since 2007 after a steady decline earlier in the decade. The data used here come from Monitoring the Future (MTF), the oldest continuous survey of illegal drug use. The MTF is funded by the federal government’s National Institute on Drug Abuse and performed by the University of Michigan. The survey is conducted in schools using a random sample of students in 8th, 10th, and 12th grades, with this indicator showing the self-reported behavior of 12th graders.
Over the 10-year period prior to 2013, the MTF results display two distinct trends: From 2002–2003 until 2007–2008, the survey shows a steady decline in use. Then, from 2007–2008 until 2013, the rate of drug use increased. What, if anything, does this signify?
Evidence suggests that youth drug use is inversely related to perceptions of risk in use and normative expectations of the unacceptability of use in the wider society.[1] When both such perceptions and expectations decline, use will rise and vice versa.
The period of declining teen drug use coincided with national policies that effectively conveyed two key messages: (1) There are tremendous risks to using illegal drugs, and (2) society views such usage as unacceptable. However, coincident with new national policies introduced by a new Administration, these messages changed. It is hard not to see changing national policy in relation to teen drug use; clearly, national leadership matters. This observation is supported by a wide variety of other drug-use indicators.[2]
Broader developments in society (legalization movements, popular cultural depictions, political leadership) seem to have contributed to a recent cultural shift in attitudes more favorable toward drug use. Researchers have found a strong predictor of future drug use by measuring young people’s perceptions of risk in using drugs and their sense of the norms of social disapproval regarding drug use.[3]Both of these measures have declined steeply in recent years. Judgments of “great risk” from regular marijuana use fell from about 80 percent of high school seniors in 1991 to about 40 percent in 2013, while for 10th graders, disapproval of marijuana use fell from about 75 percent to roughly 53 percent over the same years.[4]
These attitudes are likely affected by the normalization of use and ready availability of “medical” marijuana and should accelerate with legalization. Already, since 2008 when these attitudes changed most steeply, we have seen a 30 percent increase in marijuana use among 10th graders, according to school surveys.[5]
This shift occurred at the same time that the use of substances such as tobacco that are subject to constant cultural pressure continued to decrease. The cultural trends encouraging drug use could undermine America’s future prosperity, as teen drug use can limit opportunities later in life, such as in employment, military service, or academic success.
Not only will positive drug tests or a pattern of drug criminality limit a young person’s opportunity for meaningful employment or the military, but drug use (particularly of marijuana, by far the most widespread drug) by young people undermines their development as citizens. Low academic performance and increased delinquency are associated with marijuana use, as is increased likelihood of crime. Psychologically, use has been positively associated with cognitive deficits, loss of memory acuity, decreased motivation, driving skills, and impulsive judgment, along with serious psychological distress, including emotional disruption, depression, suicidal ideation, and psychotic episodes.[6]
The greater the exposure to drugs, the greater the association and the deeper the damage. These are not the traits associated with success in life or strength as a nation.
— John P. Walters is Chief Operating Officer at the Hudson Institute and former Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
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Additional Resources
Sources
Monitoring the Future Survey, New 2013 Data: Drug Trends, 2013 Data from In-School Surveys of 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-Grade Students, Tables 15 and 17, (accessed July 7, 2014).
2014 Index of Culture and Opportunity
Culture | Poverty & Dependence | Opportunity
Preface | Introducing the Index of Culture and Opportunity | Overview of 2014 Index | The Blessings of Liberty
Endnotes
- Lloyd D. Johnston, Patrick M. O’Malley, Jerald G. Bachman, John E. Schulenberg, Richard A. Miech, Monitoring the Future: National Survey Results on Drug Use, 1975–2013: Volume 1, Secondary School Students, University of Michigan, Institute for Social Research, June 2014 (accessed June 17, 2014).
- Federal-level messaging about drug use has proven valuable. The National Youth Media Campaign, for instance, was associated with a 24 percent decline in youth marijuana use between 2001 and 2008, according to the Monitoring the Future school-based national survey. Strong efforts to provide random school-based drug testing, prevention messaging, funding for treatment, and effective supply reduction activities were all associated with steep declines in the availability and use not only of marijuana but of drugs such as methamphetamine, MDMA (Ecstasy), LSD, and cocaine during this same time period. Ibid.
- Samuel T. Wilkenson and Deepak Cyril D’Souza, “Problems with the Medicalization of Marijuana,” JAMA, May 20, 2014, and Nora Volkow et al., “Adverse Health Effects of Marijuana Use,” The New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 370, No. 23 (June 5, 2014), pp. 2219–2227.
- Lloyd D. Johnston, Patrick M. O’Malley, Richard A. Miech, Jerald G. Bachman, John E. Schulenberg, Monitoring the Future: National Survey Results on Drug Use, 1975–2013, Overview, Key Findings on Adolescent Drug Use, University of Michigan, Institute for Social Research, February 2014 (accessed July 9, 2014).
- Lloyd D. Johnson et al., Monitoring the Future: National Survey Results on Drug Use, 1975–2013, Overview, Key Findings on Adolescent Drug Use, Table 7.
- David M. Semple, Andrew M. McIntosh, and Stephen M. Lawrie, “Cannabis as a Risk Factor for Psychosis: Systematic Review,” Journal of Psychopharmacology, Vol. 19, No. 2 (March 2005), pp. 187–194, and Benjamin Chadwick, Michael L. Miller, and Yasmin Hurd, “Cannabis Use During Adolescent Development: Susceptibility to Psychiatric Illness,” Frontiers in Psychiatry, Vol. 4 (October 14, 2013).
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