Substance Abuse Daily Among US Teens
A typical day in the life of many US teens includes cigarette smoking, marijuana use, and/or alcohol consumption, new research shows.
A new report released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) shows on an average day almost 1 million of US teenagers aged 12 to 17 smoke cigarettes, about 650,000 smoke marijuana, and just under 500,000 consume alcohol.
The report also sheds light on how many adolescents aged 12 to 17 used illegal substances for the first time.
On an average day:
- 7639 drank alcohol for the first time;
- 4594 used an illicit drug for the first time;
- 4000 used marijuana for the first time;
- 3701 smoked cigarettes for the first time; and
- 2151 misused prescription pain relievers for the first time.
Using data from SAMHSA Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS), the report also analyzed how many adolescents aged 12 to 17 were receiving treatment for a substance abuse problem during an average day. These numbers included:
- Over 71,000 in outpatient treatment;
- More than 9302 in nonhospital residential treatment; and
- Over 1258 in hospital inpatient treatment.
In terms of hospital emergency department visits involving adolescents aged 12 to 17, on an average day marijuana is involved in 165 visits, alcohol is involved in 187 visits, and misuse of prescription or nonprescription pain relievers is implicated in 74 visits.
This data about adolescents sheds new light on how deeply substance use pervades the lives of many young people and their families. While other studies indicate that significant progress has been made in lowering the levels of some forms of substance use among adolescents in the past decade, this report shows that far too many young people are still at risk.
The full report is available at the SAMHSA Web site.
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