Survey Finds Teen Drug Use Leveling Off

Teenagers’ drug use is leveling off amid growing evidence that America’s youth, which once viewed drugs as almost a rite of passage, now views them as uncool, according to the annual survey by the New York-based Partnership for a Drug-Free America. The 12th survey of U.S. teenagers found that 40% of those questioned felt “really cool” teens did not use drugs--an increase of 5 percentage points from last year. Among 13- to 15-year-olds, only 8% believed marijuana smokers were popular, down from 13% last year and 17% in 1997, the survey found.