Teen Drug Use on the Rise [w/poll]

A national study conducted as part of a research grant from the National Institutes of Health finds that teen marijuana use has risen for the fourth straight year while teen drinking has continued to decline.

The study—Monitoring the Future, conducted by the Michigan’s Institute for Social Resarch—found that daily marijuana use was at a 30-year high among teens and that marijuana in general was also increasing.

The study found that 6.6 percent of 12th-graders use marijuana every day or nearly every day and that one in four students in grades eight, 10 and 12 used marijuana during the previous year. In addition, one in nine high school seniors (11.4 percent) reported using synthetic marijuana in the prior 12 months.

Drug use over all has risen over the last four years with half of the high school seniors surveyed reporting having tried an illicit drug and 40 percent reporting using one in the last 12 months.

The survey results were released today and included interviews with 47,000 eighth-, 10th-, and 12th-grade students in 400 public and private secondary schools.