26. April 2010 by stationmanager.

 The article below is from the year 2000 but, I thought it important enough to reprint here so that perhaps a little wider audience might be exposed to the ongoing conversation pertaining to drug and alcohol abuse and public policy. 

  By Joseph A. Califano, Jr., Julius B. Richmond,                     Louis W. Sullivan and David Satcher*                 The study published this week in the JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) which finds that underage drinkers and adult excessive drinking account for half of the alcohol consumed in the U.S. has profound ramifications for public policy, parents and the alcohol industry.                  The peer-reviewed analysis reveals that in 1999 (the last year for which necessary data was available) children and underage drinkers consumed 19.7 percent and excessive adult drinking accounted for 30.4 percent of the beer, wine and liquor consumed in the United States.  And that estimate of misuse and abuse of alcohol is probably conservative.  Researchers used the federal government’s health standard for men—in excess of two drinks a day–to calculate the amount of adult excessive drinking for both men and women, when the health standard for women is in excess of one drink a day because of differences in body water and the way in which women metabolize alcohol.                Drinking is a fatal attraction for America’s children and underage drinkers.  Alcohol is a major contributor to the three leading causes of teen death: accidents, homicide and suicide.  Individuals who begin drinking before age 21 are likelier to become adult excessive drinkers.  They are more than twice as likely to develop alcohol related problems.  Biomedical research had found that alcohol alters the developing brain and may cause irreversible brain damage.                Moreover, for young Americans there is a correlation between alcohol use and illegal drug use.  The Directors of the National Institutes of Drug Abuse and Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse point out that “12 to 17 year old youth who consumed alcohol in the past month were 7.6 times more likely to use illicit drugs than those who did not.”  Although a recent study by the Harvard School of Public Health suggests that moderate drinking may have some beneficial impact on the heart, there is resounding evidence that excessive drinking is linked to serious health problems such as liver disease, high blood pressure, stroke and many cancers.  Alcohol is the number one drug involved in crimes such as rape, assault and murder and in child abuse, domestic violence, family breakup and accidents.  In the population 12 and older, heavy binge drinkers (five drinks at one sitting at least five times a month) are eleven times more likely to use illicit drugs like marijuana, cocaine and heroin.Of Americans who drink, 76 percent are adult moderate drinkers who consume 34 percent of the alcohol.  Nine percent are adult excessive drinkers who consume 46.3 percent of the alcohol.  The remaining 15 percent are underage drinkers who consume 19.7 percent of the alcohol.With these revelations about underage and adult excessive drinking, the beer, wine and hard liquor companies face a choice.  They must now decide whether they are prepared to cooperate with the public health community to curb such drinking, or whether they intend to walk the walk of the cigarette companies, undermining legislative public health initiatives and fighting lawsuits that claim their marketing activities have encouraged such drinking.  One marker of good faith would be for the alcohol industry to endow a truly independent foundation to mount an aggressive campaign to combat underage and adult excessive drinking.  We do not expect an industry that gets half its sales from such drinking to mount a credible campaign against it with institutions like the Century Council, which it controls.                The industry should also voluntarily label its products, detailing all the ingredients and specifying the caloric content.  In a survey of girls and young women, the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University found that only 56 percent knew alcohol is high in calories and contributes to weight gain. Another 5.7 percent thought that drinking alcohol makes one lose weight (not surprisingly, these young women drank more than the others).  Every beer container and bottle of wine and hard liquor should bear a label warning against underage and excessive adult drinking and listing the consumption standards established by the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services and Agriculture—e.g., “More than two drinks a day for men and more than one drink a day for women is hazardous to your health.”                Federal, state and local governments can promote the public health and ease their budgetary problems by increasing taxes on beer, wine and liquor.  Increasing the cost of alcoholic beverages offers a triple win to hard pressed governments: it will discourage underage and adult excessive drinking and decrease the related health care and criminal justice costs, it will lower their deficits, and it will reduce illegal drug use.                Alcohol is the number one drug of abuse for young Americans.  Revealing the widespread extent of underage drinking and the often related adult excessive drinking triggers a loud alarm for parents and schools: Underage drinking can no longer be winked at as an inevitable rite of passage; it must be recognized as the grim game of Russian roulette it is, a game far too dangerous to ignore or accept among our youngsters.          

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11. April 2010 by stationmanager.

A man named William Borchert has written a book titled “The Lois Wilson Story–When Love is not enough” that has been made into a movie. The movie will premier on the “Hallmark Hall of Fame” on the CBS network April 25th,2010 at 9:00 PM EST, and stars Winona Ryder as Lois Wilson, the founder of Al-Anon, and Barry Pepper as her husband Bill Wilson, one of the co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous. This woman was one of the most important and influential people of the twentieth century. Without her, there would have been no Alcoholics Anonymous or Al-Anon Family Groups, and millions of people that have used these programs to  recover from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body, would still be suffering.

I suggest you put it on your calendar and invite some friends over to watch it with you. Whether you are in Recovery or not, you will be amazed how the faith of this woman changed the world. Here are some things other people have to say about Lois Wilson, Mr. Borcherts book, and the movie. Enjoy.

THE FIRST BIOGRAPHY OF THE GREAT AMERICAN WOMAN WHO CREATED A WORLD WIDE MOVEMENT TO SAVE MILLIONS OF FAMILIES FROM THE DEVASTATION OF ALCOHOL AND DRUGS

About the Book
Near the bottom of her husband Bill’s downward spiral into alcoholic hell, when he collapsed one night in a drunken stupor in the hallway of their Clinton Street, Brooklyn home, Lois Wilson felt she could bear no more. Pounding hysterically on his chest, she screamed out in despair: “You don’t even have the decency to die!” The compelling story behind this painful, oft-repeated scene eventually led to two of the most important movements of the twentieth century: Alcohol Anonymous and Al-Anon.

Lois Wilson, the wife of the man who co-founded Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), stuck by her husband through his seventeen years of tormented and abusive alcoholic drinking, believing that her unconditional love could get him sober. But it could not. The daughter of well-to-do parents, this loving and determined women watched her husband, Bill Wilson, destroy his career, his relationships and his health, checking into and out of alcoholic sanatoriums as he neared the point of insanity and death. Finally, through a life-changing spiritual experience, the fellowship of AA was born.

It was through Lois Wilson’s heart-rending, emotional struggle and her witnessing other spouses and children similarly impacted that she came to realize that alcoholism is a family disease and that the solution was a program for recovery, a family support group that came to be known as Al-Anon.

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4. April 2010 by stationmanager.

   Substance Abuse treatment and Mental Health are the topics of this post— two things we should all be concerned about. This is additional data from the latest SAMHSA survey.

   For the complete survey results in easy to navigate form  click here

Substance Dependence, Abuse, and TreatmentIn 2008, an estimated 22.2 million persons (8.9 percent of the population aged 12 or older) were classified with substance dependence or abuse in the past year based on criteria specified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV). Of these, 3.1 million were classified with dependence on or abuse of both alcohol and illicit drugs, 3.9 million were dependent on or abused illicit drugs but not alcohol, and 15.2 million were dependent on or abused alcohol but not illicit drugs.Between 2002 and 2008, there was no change in the number of persons with substance dependence or abuse (22.0 million in 2002 and 22.2 million in 2008).The specific illicit drugs that had the highest levels of past year dependence or abuse in 2008 were marijuana (4.2 million), followed by pain relievers (1.7 million) and cocaine (1.4 million).In 2008, adults aged 21 or older who had first used alcohol at age 14 or younger were more than 5 times as likely to be classified with alcohol dependence or abuse than adults who had their first drink at age 21 or older (15.1 vs. 2.6 percent).The rate of substance dependence or abuse for males aged 12 or older in 2008 was nearly twice as high as the rate for females (11.5 vs. 6.4 percent). Among youths aged 12 to 17, however, the rate of substance dependence or abuse was higher among females than males (8.2 vs. 7.0 percent).Between 2002 and 2008, the percentage of youths aged 12 to 17 with substance dependence or abuse declined from 8.9 to 7.6 percent.Treatment need is defined as having a substance use disorder or receiving treatment at a specialty facility (hospital inpatient, drug or alcohol rehabilitation, or mental health centers) within the past 12 months. In 2008, 23.1 million persons aged 12 or older needed treatment for an illicit drug or alcohol use problem (9.2 percent of persons aged 12 or older). Of these, 2.3 million (0.9 percent of persons aged 12 or older and 9.9 percent of those who needed treatment) received treatment at a specialty facility. Thus, 20.8 million persons (8.3 percent of the population aged 12 or older) needed treatment for an illicit drug or alcohol use problem but did not receive treatment at a specialty substance abuse facility in the past year.Of the 20.8 million people in 2008 who were classified as needing substance use treatment but did not receive treatment at a specialty facility in the past year, 1.0 million persons (4.8 percent) reported that they felt they needed treatment for their illicit drug or alcohol use problem. Of these 1.0 million persons who felt they needed treatment, 233,000 (23.3 percent) reported that they made an effort to get treatment, and 766,000 (76.7 percent) reported making no effort to get treatment. Mental HealthSerious mental illness (SMI) among adults is defined in Public Law 102-321 as persons aged 18 or older who currently or at any time in the past year have had a diagnosable mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder (excluding developmental and substance use disorders) of sufficient duration to meet diagnostic criteria specified within DSM-IV that has resulted in functional impairment, which substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities. In 2008, there were an estimated 9.8 million adults with SMI, representing 4.4 percent of adults.Rates of SMI in 2008 were highest for adults aged 18 to 25 (7.4 percent) and lowest for adults aged 50 or older (2.3 percent).The prevalence of SMI among women aged 18 or older (5.6 percent) was higher than that among men in that age group (3.0 percent).The rate of SMI was higher among adults who were unemployed (8.0 percent) than among those who were employed full time (3.5 percent) or part time (4.8 percent).SMI in the past year was associated with past year substance dependence or abuse. Among adults aged 18 or older with SMI in 2008, 25.2 percent (2.5 million) were dependent on or abused illicit drugs or alcohol. The rate among adults without SMI was 8.3 percent (17.9 million).Among the 9.8 million adults with SMI in 2008, 5.7 million (58.7 percent) used mental health services in the past year. Among all adults with SMI, 52.6 percent received a prescription medication, 40.5 percent received outpatient services, and 7.5 percent received inpatient services for a mental health problem in the past year.Among the 2.5 million adults with both SMI and substance dependence or abuse (i.e., a substance use disorder) in 2008, more than half (60.5 percent) received mental health care or substance use treatment at a specialty facility; 11.4 percent received both mental health care and specialty substance use treatment, 45.2 percent received only mental health care, and 3.7 percent received only specialty substance use treatment.In 2008, an estimated 8.3 million adults (3.7 percent) had serious thoughts of suicide in the past year. The rate was 3.9 percent among women and 3.4 percent among men. The rate was highest among young adults aged 18 to 25 (6.7 percent) compared with adults 26 to 49 (3.9 percent) and adults aged 50 or older (2.3 percent).Among adults aged 18 or older in 2008, 2.3 million (1.0 percent) made suicide plans in the past year, and 1.1 million (0.5 percent) reported attempting suicide. A half million adults reported staying overnight in a hospital as a result of their suicide attempt in the past year.In 2008, 6.4 percent of persons aged 18 or older (14.3 million persons) had at least one major depressive episode (MDE) in the past year. Over 1 in 25 adults (4.2 percent or 9.5 million persons) had past year MDE with severe impairment.In 2008, adults with past year MDE were more likely than those without MDE to be dependent on or abuse illicit drugs or alcohol (20.3 vs. 7.8 percent).Among adults aged 18 or older who had MDE in the past year in 2008, 71.0 percent received treatment (i.e., saw or talked to a medical doctor or other professional or used prescription medication) for depression in the same time period.Among adults aged 18 or older with MDE in the past year in 2008, women were more likely than men to receive treatment for depression in the past year (74.2 vs. 65.0 percent).In 2008, there were 2.0 million youths (8.3 percent of the population aged 12 to 17) who had MDE during the past year. An estimated 1.5 million (6.0 percent) had MDE with severe impairment in one or more role domains (chores at home; school or work; close relationships with family; or social life).The rate of MDE in the past year was higher for adolescent females (12.4 percent) than for adolescent males (4.3 percent). The prevalence of MDE with severe impairment was 9.2 percent for females and 2.9 percent for males.Among 12 to 17 year olds who had past year MDE in 2008, 37.4 percent had used illicit drugs during the same period. This was higher than the rate of 17.2 percent among youths who did not have past year MDE. Similarly, the rates of past month daily cigarette use and heavy alcohol use were higher for youths with MDE (3.6 and 3.4 percent, respectively) than for youths who did not have MDE (1.8 and 1.8 percent, respectively).In 2008, 37.7 percent of youths aged 12 to 17 with past year MDE received treatment for depression (saw or talked to a medical doctor or other professional or used prescription medication). Among youths with past year MDE, 21.7 percent saw or talked to a medical doctor or other professional only, 2.9 percent used prescription medication only, and 13.1 percent received treatment from both sources for depression in the past year.In 2008, 3.1 million youths aged 12 to 17 (12.7 percent) received treatment or counseling for problems with behavior or emotions in the specialty mental health setting (inpatient or outpatient care). Additionally, 11.8 percent of youths received services in the education setting, and 2.9 percent received mental health services in the general medical setting in the past 12 months. Mental health services were received in both the specialty setting and either the education or general medical settings (i.e., care from multiple settings) by 5.3 percent of youths.

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14. March 2010 by stationmanager.

There was a time in our history—not so long ago—when smoking was cool, when seat belts were for sissies, and when AIDS was seen as a death sentence for gay sex. Today our attitudes are profoundly different—with powerful and beneficial consequences. Smoking has been cut sharply, and so have the related deaths from lung cancer and heart disease. Auto safety measures have curbed the highway death and injury rate. AIDS is recognized as a serious illness rather than
a social curse.In all three cases, we fundamentally changed our attitudes and, as a result, took actions that greatly improved the quality of life for millions of people.The time has come for a fundamental change in our attitude about the pervasive and pernicious role drug and alcohol abuse play in our society and a revolution in the way we deal with it.

Americans, comprising only four percent of the world’s population, consume two-thirds of the world’s illegal drugs. The number of illegal drug users, which had dropped from a high of 25.4 million in 1979 to a quarter century low of 12 million in 1992, rose to 20.4 million in 2006. The number of teen illegal drug users, which had dropped from its 1979 high of 3.3 million to a low of 1.1 million in 1992, more than doubled to 2.5 million in 2006.All the huffing and puffing in the current war on drugs has not been able to blow down the nation’s house of substance abuse and addiction:
• 61 million Americans are hooked on cigarettes.
• 16 to 20 million are addicted to alcohol or abuse it regularly.
• More than 15 million abuse prescription drugs.
• 15 million smoke marijuana.
• 2.4 million use cocaine; 600,000 use crack.
• Hundreds of thousands are hooked on heroin.
• More than 750,000 are methamphetamine users.
• 1 million use ecstasy and hallucinogens.
• Almost 2 million of our children have used steroids.
• 4.5 million teens abuse controlled prescription drugs like OxyContin, Ritalin, and Adderall to get high.The human misery that addiction and abuse cause can’t be calculated. The consequences of this
epidemic are severe.Almost a quarter of a trillion dollars of the nation’s yearly health-care bill is attributable to substance abuse and addiction.

Alcohol and other drug abuse is involved in most violent and property crimes, with 80 percent of the nation’s adult inmates and juvenile arrestees either committing their offenses while high, stealing to buy drugs, violating alcohol or drug laws, having a history of substance abuse/addiction, or sharing some mix of these characteristics.

Seventy percent of abused and neglected children have alcohol or drug abusing parents.

Ninety percent of homeless are alcoholics or alcohol abusers; 60 percent abuse other drugs.

Half of the nation’s college students binge drink and/or abuse illegal and prescription drugs. Nearly a quarter of them meet the medical criteria for alcohol and drug abuse and addiction. Cruel courtesy of excessive drinking, each year—700,000 students are injured, 100,000 are raped or sexually assaulted, and 1,700 are killed by alcohol poisoning or alcohol related injuries.Addiction and the Brain

Statistically we have known for some time that teens who abuse alcohol and smoke marijuana are likelier to use drugs like cocaine and heroin. Now biomedical research and the brain imaging work of Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), help explain why teens who play with the fire of cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana increase the chance they will get burned by the flames of heroin, cocaine, and hallucinogens. All of these substances cause an increase in dopamine levels in the brain. As dopamine levels increase, an individual’s feeling of pleasure increases. A growing body of science is finding that all these substances affect dopamine levels in the brain through similar pathways, and dopamine becomes less active in the brains of addicts who use drugs to trigger its release, a condition which in turn reinforces the need for the drug.Studies by scientists in Italy reveal that marijuana affects levels of dopamine in the brain in a manner akin to heroin. Studies in the United States have found that nicotine and alcohol (as well as cocaine) have a similar effect on dopamine levels through common pathways to the brain. This may explain why some scientists believe that nicotine makes the brain more accommodating to other drugs.In essence, whatever the substance, the brains of addicts are “rewired,” becoming predisposed to
cravings. Dr. Joseph Frascella of NIDA points out that “in excessive behaviors such as compulsive drug abuse…the brain is changed, reward circuits are disrupted, and the behavior eventually becomes involuntary….”

These statistical and biological findings are underscored by the fact that most addicts are poly-drug abusers. Alcoholics are likely to abuse tranquilizers, sleeping pills, or other psychotropic drugs. Older teens who abuse prescription drugs are often found to be to be abusing other drugs as well. There are also social elements to the relationship among smoking, drinking, and using illegal and prescription drugs, as well as to polydrug use, particularly among children and teens. Kids who seek the high from marijuana may also want to look for “better” highs from other drugs. As kids start using drugs, they may tend to hang out and share experiences with others who use different drugs. In a sense, these teens end up encouraging each other to use various drugs.

Of special importance is the need to recognize that for many teens, smoking, drinking, or drug use is often a symptom of incipient depression, anxiety or some other (usually undiagnosed) mental illness that hikes the youngster’s risk of drug abuse.

Mental health problems go hand in hand with smoking, drinking, and drug use for children and adults, and these problems can lead individuals to self-medicate with a variety of substances. Our current approach to substance abuse does not
adequately recognize this.

Mounting a Revolution

We must recognize that substance abuse and addiction is a disease, not a moral failing or easily abandoned self-indulgence. We must recognize that it is a complex disease with neurological, physical, emotional, and spiritual components. We must recognize its impact on the most intractable domestic problems we confront. With such acceptance and recognition, we will appreciate the benefits of a revolution.

In the Health-care System—The National Institutes of Health spend $13 billion a year on research for cancer, strokes, cardiovascular, and respiratory diseases, and AIDS, but only one tenth of that amount to study substance abuse and addiction—the largest single cause and excacerbator of this quintet of killers and cripplers. It is time for a revolution in health-care: the creation of the National Institute on Addiction, with a budget of at least $3 billion a year to conduct a “Manhattan Project”-style research initiative identifying the causes and cures of substance abuse and addiction.

Courses in substance abuse and addiction should be a compulsory part of medical school curriculums. Physicians should be trained to diagnose the disease and refer patients for treatment. States and medical societies should establish professional standards for treatment counselors and accreditation systems to certify treatment facilities. Public and private health plans should cover substance abuse treatment and pay doctors to talk to patients.

Only through professionalizing the treatment system will we be able to bring it fully into the medical care system, which, in turn, is key to obtaining parity of coverage.

In the Justice System—Our nation’s prison system is as anachronistic as the debtor prisons in Charles Dickens’ day. Prosecutors, courts, and prisons must seize the opportunity to reclaim hundreds of thousands of addicts by using the criminal justice system to offer effective treatment for all who need it and incentives for them to achieve and maintain sobriety. Successfully treating and training inmates could deliver the greatest reduction in criminal activity in the nation’s history. Experts estimate that the number of crimes committed by a drug addict range from 89 to 191 annually.

In the Social Service System—Parental substance abuse accounts for $23 billion in the nation’s child welfare spending, and most domestic violence involves alcohol or other drugs. The time has come for a complete overhaul of family court, adoption, and foster care systems in order to better deal with alcohol and drug abusing parents and partners. The only way we will rehabilitate our nation’s homeless population is by investing in substance abuse and mental health treatment.

In the Education System—Schools, from elementary through college, should include age appropriate education about all substance abuse involving tobacco, alcohol, prescription, and illegal drugs as they do about other health matters from hygiene to STDs.

Prevention should be “laser beamed” on children. Sixteen years of research at The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse finds that a child who gets through age 21 without smoking, using illegal drugs, or abusing alcohol is
virtually certain never to do so. It is time to end the denial and stamp out the stigma associated with substance abuse and addiction, and to finally commit the energy and resources to confront a plague that has maimed and killed more Americans than all our wars, natural catastrophes, and traffic accidents combined.In his monumental study of history, the brilliant British historian Arnold Toynbee found that the great civilizations were destroyed not by an external enemy, but from within. “Civilizations,” he said, “die from suicide, not by murder.” Of all the internal dangers our nation faces, none possess a greater threat to our children and families and none is complicit in more domestic ills than substance abuse and addiction.This is our enemy within.

The judgment of history will be harsh if we fail to defeat that enemy—and deservedly so, when the stakes are our children and there is so much we can do to help them. 

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6. March 2010 by stationmanager.

Of the 2.3 million inmates in prison or jail in the United States, 1.5 million meet the DSM IV medical criteria for substance abuse or addiction. An additional 458,000 had histories of substance abuse; were under the influence of alcohol or other drugs at the time of their crime; committed their offense to get money to buy drugs; were incarcerated for an alcohol or drug law violation; or shared some combination of these characteristics, according to Behind Bars II: Substance Abuse and America’s Prison Population. Combined these two groups constitute 85 percent of the U.S. prison population.

The new 144-page report released on Friday by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University also reveals that alcohol and other drugs are significant factors in all crime. In 2006, alcohol and other drugs were involved in these inmate offenses:
78 percent of violent crimes;
83 percent of property crimes; and
77 percent of public order, immigration or weapon offenses; and probation/parole violations.

Despite these high rates, the CASA report found that only 11 percent of all inmates with substance abuse and addiction disorders receive any treatment during their incarceration. The report found that if all inmates who needed treatment and aftercare received such services, the nation would break even in a year if just over 10 percent remained substance and crime free and employed. Thereafter, for each inmate who remained sober, employed and crime free the nation would reap an economic benefit of $90,953 per year.

“States complain mightily about their rising prison costs; yet they continue to hemorrhage public funds that could be saved if they provided treatment to inmates with alcohol and other drug problems and stepped up use of drug courts and prosecutorial drug treatment alternative programs,” said Susan E. Foster, CASA’s Vice President and Director of Policy Research and Analysis.

The report also noted that in 2005, federal, state and local governments spent $74 billion on incarceration, court proceedings, probation and parole for substance-involved adult and juvenile offenders and less than one percent of that amount—$632 million—on prevention and treatment for them.

Twelve years ago, CASA released Behind Bars: Substance Abuse and America’s Prison Population. CASA prepared this report to see if any progress had been made in reducing the number of substance-involved offenders behind bars and to examine and identify promising practices for cost-effective investments. To conduct this study, CASA researchers analyzed data on inmates from 11 federal sources, reviewed more than 650 articles and other publications, examined best practices in prevention and treatment for substance-involved offenders, reviewed accreditation standards and analyzed costs and benefits of treatment.

The CASA report also found that compared to non-substance involved inmates, substance-involved inmates are not only likelier to be re-incarcerated, begin their criminal careers at an early age, and have more contacts with the criminal justice system, but they are also:
Four times likelier to receive income through illegal activity;
Twice as likely to have had at least one parent who abused alcohol or other drugs when they were children;
41 percent likelier to have some family criminal history;
29 percent less likely to have completed at least high school; and
20 percent likelier to be unemployed a month before incarceration.

Click here to read CASA’s full news release on the report.

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21. February 2010 by stationmanager.

 Proponents of a new approach to drug policy need look no further than the results of the annual Monitoring the Future (MTF) study, which reports increased youth use of marijuana and a flattening out of many other types of illicit drug use after a prolonged decline.Smoking rates among teens also have fallen to the lowest levels in history, although tobacco-control experts worry that use of smokeless-tobacco products could be rising, according to the study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.The past two years have seen a small but significant increase in the proportion of teens reporting that they used illicit drugs, according to researchers at the University of Michigan, who have conducted the MTF study since 1975. In 2009, 32.8 percent of high-school seniors reported past-year marijuana use, as did 26.7 percent of 10th-graders and 11.8 percent of 8th-graders. Researchers said marijuana use has crept back up to the levels last reported five years ago after a steady decline in reported use dating back to the mid-1990s.

“So far, we have not seen any dramatic rise in marijuana use, but the upward trending of the past two or three years stands in stark contrast to the steady decline that preceded it for nearly a decade,” said lead researcher Lloyd Johnston. “Not only is use rising, but a key belief about the degree of risk associated with marijuana use has been in decline among young people even longer, and the degree to which teens disapprove of use of the drug has recently begun to decline. Changes in these beliefs and attitudes are often very influential in driving changes in use.”

“The small increase in marijuana use and the decline in viewing marijuana use as risky are troubling and may suggest that confusion surrounding discussions of medical marijuana may be encouraging recreational or self-medicating use by teens,” said David Rosenbloom, Ph.D., president and CEO of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA*) at Columbia University.

Marijuana was almost entirely responsible for the uptick in overall drug-use rates among teens, as reported use of illicit drugs other than marijuana continued to decline in 2009. Cocaine use, for example, is at its lowest reported levels since the early 1990s, and use of drugs like ecstasy, inhalants and LSD also have either fallen or flattened out at relatively low levels.

Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, called the reports of softening youth attitudes about the perceived risk of marijuana use a “warning sign.”

“These latest data confirm that we must redouble our efforts to implement a comprehensive, evidence-based approach to preventing and treating drug use,” said Kerlikowske, who currently is drafting the Obama administration’s first National Drug Control Strategy, widely expected to recommend shifting more resources to demand-reduction efforts rather than programs to reduce the supply of drugs.

Bruce Mirken, director of the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) stated in a blog post on the MTF results that youth marijuana use has declined in states that have passed medical-marijuana laws. He noted that the MTF study shows that more high-school seniors now smoke marijuana than cigarettes — findings he said “do not bode well for current policies.”

Progress on Youth Smoking Rates Hailed

Smoking rates among 8th-, 10th-, and 12-graders continued to decline in 2009, according to the MTF findings. Just 11.2 percent of high-school seniors now tell researchers they smoke cigarettes, less than half the rate in 1997. The rate of decline has slowed considerably in recent years, however.

“The much slower progress in recent years is a clear warning to elected officials at all levels that they must resist complacency and redouble efforts to implement proven measures — rather than cutting tobacco prevention programs, as 34 states did this year,” said Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

Use of smokeless tobacco rose slightly among 10th-graders, MTF found, with 6.5 percent reporting use of products that the tobacco industry has been increasingly marketing as an alternative to smoking. “Public health experts had predicted this increase in response to the tobacco industry’s wide-ranging and aggressively marketed smokeless products now widely available,” according to a statement from the American Legacy Foundation.

Teen Alcohol Use Rates Bottoming Out?

As with marijuana, far fewer high-school students report drinking alcohol today than did in the 1970s and 1980s, but the long-term trend toward declining use may be slowing to a halt. Past-month use and binge-drinking rates each ticked downward in 2009 among 8th-graders, the MTF survey found, but 10th- and 12th-graders drank and binged at about the same rate last year as they had in 2007.

Still, CASA’s Rosenbloom termed the long-term trends on drinking “very positive” and used the data to rebut recent calls for lowering the legal drinking age as a means to combat binge drinking among college students.

“The 21-year-old drinking law has been an important public-health success, even with limited enforcement,” said Rosenbloom. “This year’s numbers reinforce the importance of keeping the law.”

MTF researchers found that 60 percent of students reported that they could easily obtain alcohol — including a significant drop between 2008 and 2009 and reflecting the long-term decline from a high of 75 percent in 1996. “It would appear that state and local efforts to crack down on sales to underage buyers, perhaps along with greater parental vigilance, have had an effect,” Johnston said.

Little Change Seen in Prescription Drug Misuse

Prescription drug misuse has garnered much media attention and is the focus of antidrug media campaigns from the federal government and groups like the Partnership for a Drug Free America. Antidrug officials said that non-medical use of prescription drugs remains problematic, with almost one in 10 high-school seniors reporting misuse of the prescription painkiller Vicodin, for example, and prescription drugs accounting for 8 of the 13 drugs most frequently abused by 12th-graders.

After several years of rising rates, however, this year’s MTF report finds that misuse of prescription drugs has generally leveled off. The same was true of over-the-counter medications and cold medicines, researchers reported.

The survey also identified a significant decline in reported teen use of methamphetamine: just 1.2 percent of high-school students reported using the drug, the lowest rate since 1999. Federal officials hailed the news, which underscores the belief that meth use is fading as a national threat even as it persists in certain regional pockets.

While awareness of the danger associated with meth use may be high, however, the MTF report found that the same was not true of ecstasy, inhalants and LSD: Johnson noted that perceived risk of these drugs has fallen in recent years even though there has been no corresponding rise in usage rates.

“Given the glamorous name and reputation of [ecstasy], I could easily imagine it making a comeback as younger children entering their teens become increasingly unaware of its risks,” he said, noting that the shift in attitudes toward these drugs and substances could leave young teens more open to experimentation.

The MTF included questions about use of the psychoactive herb salvia divinorum — which has received substantial media coverage in recent years — for the first time in 2009. Researchers found that 5.7 percent of high-school seniors reported using salvia in the past year; the herb grows wild in some regions of the U.S. and remains legal in many states.

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