Human Services News

From Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs News:

The number of American youths who tell researchers that they used illicit drugs within the last year continues to inch downward, but the annual Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey also found stubbornly high levels of prescription-drug abuse and an end to the decline in smoking among young teens.

The survey of 50,000 8th-, 10th- and 12th-graders found that the overall percentage of U.S. youths using alcohol or other drugs declined modestly in 2006, continuing a decade-long trend.

Lloyd Johnson, Ph.D., principal investigator of the study, expressed particular concern about a decline in perceived risk of using inhalants.

Use of inhalants did not increase in 2006, according to the study, but inhalant use has been rising among American youth in recent years.

Misuse of prescription drugs, which also has risen sharply in recent years, did not increase in 2006, but remained at "unacceptably high levels," according to a press release from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), which sponsors the survey.

The Marijuana Policy Project, however, issued a report saying that prohibition of marijuana does not deter youth use of the drug.

University of Michigan researchers also sounded an alarm about youth smoking, saying the MTF findings indicate that the trend toward lower smoking rates among children in their early and middle teens has ended.

Corr called for states to increase tobacco taxes, increase funding for tobacco prevention programs, and pass public-smoking bans, and said Congress needs to pass legislation giving the U.S. Food and Drug Administration the power to regulate tobacco products and marketing.

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