Teenagers are known as being the rebels of society. At every turn, many teens go against the grain to do what their parents don’t want them to do. Many experimented with drugs and alcohol as teens and teens continue to do so. However, a recent survey shows that cigarette smoking and use of synthetic and prescription drugs is down among the teen populace.
The number of teens who use synthetic marijuana such as K2 or spice has dropped. Among 12th graders this year, 5.8% admitted to using synthetic marijuana. This is a decline from 7.9% last year and 11.3% in 2012.
The number of teens who binge drink is also down. In 1998, some 31.5% of high school seniors admitted to binge drinking. As it stands now, under 20% of high school seniors binge drink.
The rates for marijuana use have stayed pretty steady, however. Even with the rise of marijuana legalization, teens have stayed level in their marijuana use. 6.5% of eighth graders, 16.6% of 10th graders and 21.2% of 12th graders said they smoked some weed in the last month.
Researchers have found that the abuse of [prescription drugs has declined steadily over the last five years. For example, the use of the painkiller Vicodin has dropped to 4.8% from 9.5%. This is a significant drop according to researchers. It is suspected by some that this could be due to the resurgence of heroin, but there is no evidence of an increase in the use of heroin or other harder drugs.
What is up among the teens is e-cigarettes. Teens are vaping with safe alternative to real cigarettes more than ever before. An unrelated study in Hawaii shows that 29% of teens surveyed used e-cigarettes. That number is much higher than the one in the previous survey.
[CNN]
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