February 5, 1999

After six years of steady increases, illicit drug use among secondary school students has begun to wane, according to a 1998 national survey by the University of Michigan. The university conducts the survey annually.

Nearly 50,000 eighth, 10th, and 12th grade students in 422 public and private secondary schools participated in the study, and all three grades had slight decreases in the proportion of students who reported using any illicit drug during the 12 months prior to the survey. Since 1991, there have been steady increases in drug use for the three grade levels, but the 1998 study marked the first year of decline for 10th and 12th graders and the second consecutive year for eighth graders.

"The improvement so far is very modest," noted Lloyd D. Johnston, Ph.D., the principal investigator of the study, "Monitoring the Future."

Funded under a research grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the study covers a wide range of substances, each experiencing its own pattern of changed use.

The decline in the use of illicit substances with a history of strongest prevalence among secondary school students marked the most significant turnabout. All three grade levels revealed a considerable decrease in the use of hallucinogens (LSD, Ecstasy), inhalants (glues, aerosols, butane, and solvents), and alcohol. Furthermore, marijuana use diminished in all three grade levels, although it is still widespread and marijuana is the most widely used of all the illicit drugs. In addition, eighth and 10th graders reported a decline in the use of stimulants, whereas their use was unchanged among 12th grade students.

Use of other illicit drugs did not show any significant decline, however. The increase in heroin use halted at all three grade levels in 1998. In contrast, the use of tranquilizers, although leveling off among eighth graders, continued a gradual upward drift in consumption among 10th and 12th graders.

Studying cocaine (powder and crack) use among secondary school students revealed mixed results. In general, crack use has continued to increase since 1991 in the eighth and 10th grades, whereas the use of powder cocaine has now leveled off in those grades. However, the use of both forms of cocaine by 12th graders has reached its highest point since 1991.

The study also analyzed the degree of risk associated with each drug as perceived by the students. Students consider such substances as marijuana, inhalants, stimulants (results available only for 12th graders), and heroin to be increasingly more dangerous than they were since 1991. Similarly, eighth and 10th grade students shared the same views on the risks associated with alcohol. However, upperclassmen perceived alcohol less dangerously than younger students did.

The perceived risk attributed to cocaine use decreased in all three grade levels. Logically for Johnston, these results are in accordance with the noted increase and leveling off of crack and powder cocaine use among the students surveyed.

The University of Michigan researchers note that the increase in perceived risk for illicit substances may be attributed, in part, to recent media coverage of certain drugs like methamphetamine and MDMA. Also, ad campaigns by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America against the use of inhalants and marijuana can be credited, in part, with the decline, as well as influence generated by parents and community groups, they suggested.

Johnston pointed out, "This turnaround may be due in part to more young people getting to observe adverse consequences of drug use firsthand as the number of users has risen."