Posted on August 11, 2009

Although fewer 8th, 10th, and 12th graders are reporting illicit drug use, more adolescents are abusing prescription drugs.

The University of Michigan’s “Monitoring the Future” study surveyed 48,025 students from 403 secondary schools. The researchers found that the use of OxyContin, a powerful painkiller, was slightly higher this year for all three grades. At least one in 20 high school seniors has tried the narcotic in the past year.

Wilson Compton, division director at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, said he was troubled by the results. “Prescription drugs remain at high and very concerning levels,” he said. “We need to do a better job of communicating the risks of these prescription drugs and protecting youth from what can be dangerous in the long run.”

The study also found, however, that the proportion of 8th graders reporting illicit drug use in the past 12 months dropped by nearly 50 percent, from 24 percent in 1996 to 13 percent in 2007. The decline was less dramatic for 10th graders, from 39 percent in 1997 to 28 percent. Use declined among 12th graders from 42 to 36 percent in the same period.

The use of alcohol by teens has also declined since the mid-1990s. Smoking rates continued a gradual decline in grades 8 and 10 in 2007.

Among those drugs used less by teens are marijuana and amphetamines. Cocaine, however, was the one stimulant that did not show a decline in usage this year. Though its use peaked in the late 1990s and then declined for a year or two, it has been relatively steady in recent years. Between 2 and 5 percent of students in each of the three grades surveyed reported using cocaine during the previous year.

MDMA, or ecstasy, showed signs of increased use. Though the popularity of the drug plummeted in the early 2000s, use has begun to increase again in the upper grades.

“There is evidence here of this drug beginning to make a comeback,” wrote Lloyd Johnston, a University of Michigan researcher and principal investigator of the study.

The study also looked at the use of over-the-counter cough and cold medications taken to get high. The cough suppressant dextromethorphan is an active ingredient in most of these medications.

Usage rates of dextromethorphan, which ranged from 4 percent in 8th grade to 7 percent in 12th grade, have remained fairly steady during the last decade, with a slight decrease this year among 12th graders.

“There is little evidence yet of much improvement,” Johnston wrote.