More than 4 million students, 11-18, use drugs regularly;

more than one million use an illegal drug every day

Washington, D.C., Sep. 8, 1999 -- The nation's largest survey of teen-age drug use, released today in Washington, contains mixed results. Overall, annual student drug use, which more than doubled to 30 percent from 1992 to 1997, fell by 1.6 percent in the past year while monthly use of cocaine, hallucinogens, liquor, and wine coolers by high school students showed small but statistically significant increases.

Monthly use of heroin by high school students also increased slightly, but the change was not statistically significant.

-ost of the decline in overall illicit drug use can be attributed to fewer students reporting they tried marijuana at least once in the past year. In most other drug categories, the reduction in use in the past year was less than 1 percent.

-"There has been noticeable progress in the last two years, but we are far from a turnaround in reducing teen drug use. At the current rate of decline, teen drug use will not return to the 1991 level for another 11 to 12 years," said Thomas J. Gleaton, Ed.D., author of the survey.

-The results are contained in the 12th Annual PRIDE National Survey of Student Drug Use and Violence released today in Washington. The survey is designated by federal law as a measurement of effectiveness of the National Drug Control Strategy.

-Responses from 138,079 students in grades 6 to 12 in 28 states were included in the study.

-Despite the modest downturn in drug use, more than one in four students (27 percent) used an illegal drug at least once last year, and about one in six (16 percent) used drugs monthly or more often, the government’s definition of a current drug user. Daily use stood at 5 percent.

-With more than 25.6 million students in grades 6 to 12, the number of monthly users is estimated at 4 million. At least one million use on a daily basis.

-Drug use begins early. Nearly a tenth (9 percent) of all sixth graders, as young as 11-years-old, experimented with illicit drugs, and one in four (27 percent) drank beer, wine coolers or liquor.

-For high schools students (grades 9-12) the numbers are even more compelling. One in three (35 percent) used an illegal drug at least once in the past year, and one in five (22 percent) used in the past month. Almost one in six (15 percent) used on a weekly basis.

-Why is teen drug use proving to be an intractable problem? One reason may be that overall attitudes among youth toward the harmful effects of drugs remained mostly unchanged in the past year. In some cases, these attitudes actually worsened. Fewer students than last year said they believe cocaine and heroin are very harmful to health, and more students said the drugs cause no harm. Use of both drugs inched upward slightly.

-Another reason may be that despite enormous efforts to involve parents in drug prevention activities, less than a third of students (31 percent) say their parents talk with them "often" or "a lot" about the problems of drugs.

-Yet when young people report their parents talk with them about drugs "a lot" their drug use is 37 percent lower than students who say their parents "never" talk about drugs with them.

-When measured on an annual basis the use of all illegal drugs combined (known as "any illicit drug use") fell last year for students in grades 6 to 12, from 28.7 percent in the 1997-98 school year to 27.1 percent in 1998-99. (Annual use means the student tried the drug at least once in the past year).

-The recent high point for drug use was the 1996-97 school year when 30.1 percent of students said they had used a drug in the past year.

-Use of any illicit drug on a monthly basis also fell from 17.1 percent the previous year to 16.3 percent in the school year that ended in June.

-"For the second consecutive year, we have seen overall decreases in drug use. After seeing increases of three to five percent per year in the first part of the decade, we are thankful to see drug use moving slowly downward once again. But it is certainly not time to become satisfied and complacent," Gleaton said.

-For some of the most chronic users of drugs -- high school monthly users of cocaine, hallucinogens, liquor and wine coolers -- usage actually increased by small but statistically significant percentage points.

-Among high schoolers, monthly use of cocaine rose from 3.1 to 3.2 percent; hallucinogens from 3.9 to 4.2 percent; liquor from 26.9 to 28.1 percent; and wine coolers from 21.4 to 22.9 percent.

-Monthly use of cocaine also inched up slightly in the 1997-98 school year but the change was not statistically significant.

A tenth of a percent can be a significant change in the PRIDE Survey due to the large number of students surveyed.

-"There is no reason for panic, but obviously the movement for these drugs is in the wrong direction," Gleaton said.

-Among all drugs studied, the greatest progress was detected in cigarette smoking. Monthly use of cigarettes fell from 25.8 percent to 23.5 percent for all students in grades 6 to 12.

-A tenth of all students (9 percent) said they smoke cigars on a monthly basis, and 5.3 percent use smokeless tobacco monthly.

Methodology

The study was conducted during the 1998-99 school year and involved students from California to New York. The PRIDE Survey represents data from sixth through twelfth grade students collected between August and June of the school year. Participating schools are sent the PRIDE Questionnaire with explicit instructions for administering the anonymous, self-report instrument.

Schools that administer the PRIDE Questionnaire do so voluntarily, or in compliance with a school district or state request.

Comparing PRIDE Survey to others

Results of the PRIDE Survey are generally consistent with the National Institute on Drug Abuse's Monitoring the Future Survey (MTF). Data from MTF has not been released for the 1998-99 school year.
Any Illicit Drug Annual Use: PRIDE vs. Monitoring the Future (MTF)

YEAR

1997-98

1996-97

1995-96

1994-95

1993-94

1992-93

1991-92
Grade 8 10 12 8 10

12

8

10

12

 8 10 12 8 10 12 8 10 12 8 10 12
PRIDE 25.1 37.2 41.0 27.9 39.1

41.6

25.9

38.0

40.8

21.3

32.3

35.8

19.3

28.6

31.9

15.0

22.6

28.2

13.5

21.1

 25.1
MTF 21.0 35.0 41.4 22.1 38.5

42.4

23.6

37.5

40.2

21.4

33.3

39.0

18.5

30.0

35.8

15.1

24.7

31.0

12.9

20.2

27.1

Differ.

-4.1

-2.2

+0.4

-5.8

-0.6

+0.8

-2.3

-0.5

-0.6

+0.1

+1.0

+3.2

-0.8

 +1.4 +3.9 +0.1 +2.1 +2.8 -0.6 -0.9 +2.0
A third survey, the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHS) has historically shown significantly lower drug use in the age 12-17 cohort than either the PRIDE Survey or the Monitoring the Future Survey.
Any Illicit Drug Monthly Use
1998-99 PRIDE vs. NHS
Ages 12-17
Age 12-17
PRIDE 16.3
NHS 9.9
Difference -6.4
This table compares this year's PRIDE Survey with NHS, which was released in August by the Department of Health and Human Services. The PRIDE Survey is designated by federal law as an official measure of effectiveness of the National Drug Control Strategy (H.R. 4328 Div. C Title VII Sec. 706 (a)(4)(B), Office of National Drug Control Policy Reauthorization Act of 1998).

Information from the survey is found in the Bureau of Justice Statistics Sourcebook. Congress uses it as an indicator of student drug use.

The 1998-99 PRIDE Survey was released in a press conference September 8 at the National Press Club in Washington. Participating in the announcement were Gleaton, Donald Ian Macdonald, member of the PRIDE Board and chairman and medical director of Employee Health Programs, and U.S. Rep. Rob Portman (R-Ohio).

Responses from students in the following states were included in the survey: Alabama, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

State breakouts are not available.
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