Drug Abuse Peaks for the Decade
The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) brought some surprising results for 2009. While illicit drug use has remained at a somewhat steady level from 2002 to 2008, there was a sharp rise in illicit drug use in 2009.
In the NSDUH survey, 8.7% of Americans, age 12 and older, reported that they had used illicit drugs of some kind, within a month before taking the survey. Dangerously close to 10%, this means that nearly 1 in 10 American adults and teenagers are using illicit drugs.
Pamela Hyde, administrator for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) stated that this report reflects a failure of the strategies used in the past to reach the current “Generation Next.” She called the numbers a “wake-up call to the nation.”
What did the numbers show exactly? Marijuana use is on the rise amongst youth, along with an increasing false belief that marijuana is not harmful to use on a regular basis. The 2009 usage of Marijuana was 6.6% more than the year before.
Perhaps more frightening, illicit use of prescription drugs increased 12%. Parents and grandparents around the nation may not be aware of the danger leftover medications in their medicine cabinets can pose.
Methamphetamines, perhaps some of the most dangerous and addictive of all psychoactive drugs, are every parent’s nightmare. Abuse of methamphetamines doubled from .1% of the population to .2% reporting recent use of meth. Ecstasy, nearly as dangerous as methamphetamines, and often as deadly, went up 50%.
Clearly, there is a disconnect somewhere between preventative efforts and the resulting drug use of today’s teenagers. Unfortunately, due to the economic situation and underfunding of prevention programs, this rise in drug use came at the same time as we saw a drop in preventative messages being delivered to youth.
More funding and fresh research and ideas need to be channeled into preventative efforts. If not, the rising trend may continue in the same direction, leaving illness, sorrow, and death in its wake.
One Comment
Nam Laughead / 19 Jul 2011 / 10:49 pm