USA Today (12/13, Weintraub) reports the Monitoring the Future survey, which has tracked habits of American teenagers since 1975, found the lowest ever rates of smoking, drinking, and other drug use. For example, the incidence of half-pack-a-day smokers has fallen from 11.1 percent of high school seniors in 1991 to 1.8 percent this year. Only 37.3 percent of seniors said they had ever been drunk, “down from a high of 53.2% in 2001.” National Institute on Drug Abuse Director Nora Volkow said the decline could be related to the fact that there are fewer “occasions to get together where the use of drugs would be facilitated,” though she acknowledged she does not have data to support that hypothesis.
Related Links:
— “There’s hope: Fewer teens are doing drugs than ever before,”Karen Weintraub, USA Today, December 13, 2016.