Big Trend » kids and teens

Use of Heroin Among Teens in America in 2010

John Halladay — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 15:29:05 +0000

Heroin is a semi synthetic opioid drug which is made from morphine. According to BBC, the United Nations estimates that, there are more than 50 million regular users of heroin, cocaine and synthetic drugs around the world.

Use of the heroin reached its peak stage in 1996 among 8th graders, it was 1.6 percent, in 1997 among 10th graders and it was 1.4 percent in 2000 among 12th graders. Since those peak levels the use has declined with annual prevalence in all three grades fluctuating between 0.7% and 0.9% from 2005 through 2009. The heroin can be administered in to the body by different methods, one of the method is through the needles. Use of the heroin with a needle has fluctuated less over time, though in 2010, 12th graders showed a significant increase to 0.7percent.

There have been some changes in the levels of the perceived risk of using heroin, the perceived risk of the heroin is nearly same in both 8th and 12th graders. The risk is high in the 10th graders with a percentage of 75.

There has been little fluctuation in the disapproval levels for heroin use over the years. Disapproval levels are high and the gap between these levels of all three graders is less. Changes that have occurred have been generally consistent with changes in perceived risk and use.

According to the MTF survey, proportion of 12th grade students saying they could get heroin fairly easily is 20 percent in 1980′s. Then after reaching peak stage around 1990′s there is gradual decrease in the availability of the heroin and it reached to nearly 22 percent in 2010 for 12th graders.

Use of Marijuana Increased in Teens in 2010

John Halladay — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 15:26:49 +0000

Most of the people in United States are abusing Marijuana excessively. An active chemical is present in marijuana, called delta 9 tetrahydrocannabinol ( THC). It can be taken orally, mixed with food, and smoked in a concentrated form as hashish.

According to the survey conducted by the Monitoring The Future (MFT) which is sponsored by the National Institute For Drug Abuse, there is a decrease in the use of marijuana among the 8th, 10th and 12th graders through 2006, 2007, and 2008. After this there has been an upturn in use in all three grades. In 2010, there was a significant increase in daily use in all three grades, reaching 1.2%, 3.3%, and 6.1% respectively. Perceived risk increased in all grades through 2004 as use decreased. Perceived risk fell after 2004 and 2005 in 12th and 8th grades respectively, presaging the more recent increase in use. From 2003 to 2007, disapproval increased in all three grades, but has been in decline since then as use of the marijuana increased.

According to the MTF reports, 41% of 8th graders, 69% of 10th graders, and 82% of 12th graders said that it is fairly or very easy to get to get the marijuana in 2010. Marijuana is less accessible to young adolescents. Thus from the reports it is clear that marijuana has remained a highly accessible drug.

Rise in Use of Drugs Among Teens in USA

John Halladay — Tue, 24 May 2011 14:32:54 +0000

A growing percentage of students in the 8th to 12th grades are using drugs on a regular basis, according to the 2010 Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey. The MTF survey is funded by NIDA and is conducted by the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research. The 36th annual study was conducted during 2010.

According to the statistics given by this survey in 2010, there is an increase in the number of students who are abusing illicit drugs and the survey raises concerns about increases in drug use among the teens in the USA. Following information is about the rate of use of these drugs by the students on USA:

When compared to 2009, daily use of marijuana increased in 2010 among the 8th to 12th graders. Use of the marijuana is higher than the smoking cigarette, in 2010, 21.4 percent of high school seniors used marijuana, while 19.2 percent smoked cigarettes.
There is a steady decline in cigarette smoking in all the three grades after several years of improvement on most measures.
After marijuana, prescription drugs and the over the counter medications are the most abused drugs by the 12th graders in 2010. Non medical use of OxyContin has not changed among the three grades and has increased in 10th graders over the past 5 years.
Use of the ecstasy by the 8th and 10th graders increased in 2010, from 2009 to 2010, lifetime use of ecstasy among 8th graders increased from 2.2% to 3.3%, past year use from 1.3% to 2.4%, and current use 0.6% to 1.1%.
Alcohol use has seen a decrease among high school seniors with past month use falling from 43.5% to 41.2% and alcohol binge drinking declining from 25.2% to 23.2%.

This rise in use of drugs among teens is now a major concern for the U.S government. Every possible measures are being adapted to control this rise.

Statistics of Youth Drug abuse

Lawrence Walker — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 11:58:07 +0000

Drugs, alcohol, cigarette abuse and related attitudes among adolescent students thorough out the country were measured by the Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey. 8th, 10th, 12th graders are included by this survey. There are few positive and negative findings in this report.

Positive findings:
According to 2009 report by NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse), there is reduction in the use of Methamphetamine in all grades from 2004 to 2009. There is a reduction in life time use from 2.3 to 1.6 percent among the 8th graders. Decline in use of drugs from 4.4 to 3.4 percent among 10th and 12th-graders.

Use of hallucinogens and LSD decreased from 5.9 to 4.7 percent and from 2.7 to 1.9 percent respectively among 12th graders.

Statistics of drug use:
According to 2009 report by NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse), use of drug once in life time was 19.6percent in United States in 2008 and 19.9 percent in 2009. Marijuana drug use percentage was 14.6 in 2008 and 15.7 percent in 2009. Use of Hallucinogens was 3.3 percent in 2008 and 3.0 percent in 2009. The use of the LSD was 1.9 percent in 2008 and 1.7 percent in 2009. The use of cocaine was 3 percent in 2008 and 2.6 percent in 2009. The use of heroin is 1.4 and 1.3 percent in 2008, 2009 respectively among 8th graders.

Use of any illicit drug increased from 34.1 to 36 percent, use of marijuana increased from 29.9 to 32.3 percent and use of Hallucinogens increased from 5.5 to 6.1 percent, use of LSD increased from 2.6 to 3.0 in 2008 and 2009 respectively, among 10th graders.

The use of any illicit drug increased from 47.4 to 46.7 percent and use of Marijuana decreased from 42.6 to 42 percent, use of Hallucinogens decreased from 8.7 to 7.4 percent and use of LSD decreased from 4 to 3.1 percent in 2008 and 2009 respectively, among 12th-graders.

The above information is about drug use statistics of 8th, 10th, 12th grade students in United States.

Does Marijuana Affect School and Other Activities?

John Halladay — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 13:12:01 +0000

Marijuana is a very harmful and illicit drug. It has different names such as pot, herb, weed, grass, boom, Mary Jane, gangster, chronic etc. Many children are using Marijuana, and most of them don’t know the negative effects of Marijuana. Memory, judgment and perception are effected by marijuana abuse. Marijuana affects the students performance at school, in academics, in sports, or clubs. Excessive Marijuana abuse makes you loose interest at school and work.

You can see this in athletes when they abuse Marijuana. Their performance gets affected their timing, movements, and coordination will also get affected. Judgment and decision making can be affected by the use of Marijuana. Chemicals of Marijuana also affects the person’s sight, ability to hear, smell, taste and feel things. Because of these reasons a student can loose interest in schools, sports, and in other activities.

So if you compare the drug using students and students who do not use drugs in school, students who do not use drugs perform well in every activity. So you may lose joyful childhood days and good career.

So it is better to avoid using drugs lead normal, happy and successful life with your friends and your family.

Trends in Teen Drugged Driving

Norman Mc'Gowan — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:54:55 +0000

Driving under the influence of drugs is a serious road safety issue as abused drivers along with others sharing the road, both will be at risk. The rate of drugged driving was more in young adults in 2008. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) 2008, the drugged driving rate was highest at 12.3 percent among the teenagers and young adults aged between 18 to 25 years.

NIDA’s Monitoring the Future survey reported that more than 12 percent of high school seniors admitted to driving under the influence of marijuana in the 2 weeks prior to the survey in 2008.

According to the 2007 State of Maryland Adolescent Survey, 11.1 percent of the Americas licensed teenagers reported driving under the influence of marijuana on three or more occasions.

A report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that road vehicle accidents are the major reasons behind the death of young people aged between 16 to 19 years. Teens have higher risk of being involved in accidents due to less driving experience. This lack of experience combined with drug abuse proves fatal for many of them.