The use of illicit drugs rose between 2008 and 2009, according to a recent survey from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
The National Survey on Drug Use and Health, released in mid-September, found the overall rate of current illicit drug use in the United States rose from 8 percent to 8.7 percent between 2008 and 2009, driven in large part by increases in marijuana use. The annual survey also found a rise in the non-medical use of prescription drugs, up from 2.5 percent of the population in 2008 to 2.8 percent in 2009. The estimated number of past-month ecstasy users rose from 555,000 to 760,000, and the number of methamphetamine users rose from 314,000 to 502,000 between 2008 and 2009.
The illicit usage rate of marijuana — shown here as part of a legal medical marijuana operation — increased among 12- to 17-year-olds.
Photo courtesy Scott Cramer, iStockphoto
Rates of substance use among young people ages 12–17 were lower than in 2002 but rose from 9.3 percent in 2008 to 10 percent in 2009. Marijuana use in that age group, which dropped between 2002 and 2006 but then remained level until 2008, went up last year as well. And the percent of youth who believed there was a great risk of harm associated with smoking marijuana once or twice a week dropped from 54.7 percent in 2008 to 49.3 percent last year.
“These results are a wake-up call to the nation,” said SAMHSA Administrator Pamela S. Hyde, JD. “Our strategies of the past appear to have stalled out with generation ‘next.’ Parents and caregivers, teachers, coaches, faith and community leaders must find credible new ways to communicate with our youth about the dangers of substance abuse.”
On the positive side, the survey found current cigarette use among people ages 12 and older reached a historic low of 23.3 percent last year, but the pace of improvement in current smoking levels is stagnating. The use of cocaine in that age group has dropped by 30 percent since 2006.
The full report, “Results from the 2009 National Survey on Drug Use and Health,” is available online at www.samhsa.gov.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association