Drug use drops for teenagers but remains higher for adults

An annual federal report on drug, alcohol and tobacco use also found that 71.5 million Americans were current users of a tobacco product.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. Sept. 25, 2006.

Washington -- To paraphrase the rock band The Who, the kids appear to be all right. Or at least doing better. But what about the grown-ups?

A large national survey shows that while illicit drug use has dropped among 12- to 17-year-olds, it has increased among baby boomers and is still high among young adults.

The results of the 2005 National Survey on Drug Use and Health suggest a change for the better among young people but a resistance to change in those old enough to be their parents and even grandparents.

Illicit drug use among 12- to 17-year-olds dropped from 11.6% in 2002 to 9.9% last year. That means that 367,000 fewer young people reported using any illegal drug in the month before they were queried.

The news was welcomed by White House and federal agency officials who released the report on Sept. 7 while also launching National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery month to promote drug treatment.

"Teens ages 12 to 17 are signaling a positive change in behavior," said John P. Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

"Kids in this country are making better choices. I'm proud of them," agreed Assistant Surgeon General Eric B. Broderick, DDS, MPH, who is also acting deputy administrator for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the agency that administers the survey.

"We first saw this shift toward healthier decisions when rates of tobacco use among young people began to go down," Dr. Broderick said. "Now we see a sustained drop in rates of drug use. We will see if the decline in drinking among 12- to 17-year-olds becomes a continued pattern as well."