Marijuana, Tobacco Use on Rise Among U.S. Teens

Use of illegal drugs--especially marijuana--as well as cigarette smoking increased among U.S. teenagers again this year, continuing a trend that began in 1991, according to a major study released Thursday.

While marijuana use is not approaching the peak levels of the 1970s, the study found that it has more than tripled among eighth-graders since 1991, more than doubled among 10th-graders since 1992 and increased by nearly two-thirds among high school seniors since 1992.

These statistics almost certainly will become part of the debate over California’s Proposition 215, the recently passed ballot measure that allows marijuana for medicinal purposes. Various officials have raised concerns that the medical exceptions will result in an increase in the drug’s inappropriate use.

“Drug use among young people is at unacceptable levels,” Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala said as she released the annual report, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and conducted by the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research.

“The core of the problem is marijuana and . . . we must fight aggressively to change these trends,” Shalala said.

The study reported that among eighth-graders the annual prevalence of marijuana use--meaning its use in the previous 12 months--was 18% in 1996, up from 5% in 1991. Among 10th-graders, it rose from a low point of 15% in 1992 to 34% in 1996. Among 12th-graders, it increased from a low point of 22% in 1992 to 36% in 1996.

The researchers said that they were especially concerned about rising daily use of marijuana. Nearly one in 20 (4.9%) of today’s 12th-graders is a daily marijuana user, as is one in every 30 10th-graders (3.5%), the report said. At the eighth-grade level, 1.5% reported daily use.

The figures for use of any illicit drug were 24% among eighth-graders, 38% for 10th-graders and 40% among 12th-graders.

Teenage cigarette smoking, the focus of a major initiative by the Clinton administration, also rose for the fifth consecutive year. Overall in 1996, smoking rates among teenagers were 21% among eighth-graders, 30% among 10th-graders and 34% among seniors.

These rates are “impressively high” when compared to the adult rate of smokers, which is 25%, the report said.

Last summer, President Clinton unveiled rules aimed at curbing teenagers’ access to cigarettes, including restrictions on advertising, promotions and vending machines.

The drug-usage report is based on interviews of 50,000 students in more than 400 public and private schools.