According to a national survey, the number of teens who abuse drugs today are lower than its been since the 90’s.
The survey, which is called Monitoring the Future and is conducted by the University of Michigan, surveyed about 50,000 8th, 10th, and 12th grade students. The survey has been conducted every year since 1991.
Dr. Lloyd Johnson, a study researcher out of Michigan, has said, “In particular, we see a tremendous decline in the portion of young people using cigarettes. The changes we’re seeing are very large and very important.”
Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse who has funded the survey has said that one thing to worry about is marijuana and the other is vaping. She remarked, “[One] is marijuana. It hasn’t gone up, like in older populations, but it hasn’t gone down, and it remains worrisome. Another concern is we see very high and very fast uptake of electronic vaping devices.”
According to the results, in 2016 1 out of every 3 high school seniors used a vape or e-cigarette, and 1 out of 6 high school seniors used a vape in the last month.
“The issue is nicotine is an addictive drug,” Volkow explained. “And if you are vaping it and not realizing it, you’re still getting conditioned [to the drug]. That results in automatic wanting of the drug.”
