In 2008, adolescents made 23,124 visits to the emergency department (ED) for drug-related suicide attempts, and young adults made 38,036 such visits; of these visits, 23.0 percent (5,312 visits) among adolescents and 17.6 percent (6,700 visits) among young adults involved antidepressants. Among ED visits for suicide attempts involving…

According to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, "abuse of prescription drugs to get high has become increasingly prevalent among teens and young adults. Past year abuse of prescription pain killers now ranks second--only behind marijuana--as the Nation's most prevalent illegal drug problem." Use of prescription drugs without a…

Of all drugs abused on college and university campuses, alcohol causes the greatest harm. Other drugs (the prevention field uses the term "other drugs" to distinguish them from alcohol, which also is a drug) also take a significant toll--diminishing the quality of campus life, undermining academic performance, compromising students' health and…

Adolescence is an important period of physical, social, psychological, and cognitive growth. No longer children and not yet adults, adolescents make significant choices about their health and develop attitudes and health behaviors that continue into adulthood. Substance use disorders among adolescents can impede the attainment of important…

This report presents the 2008 National Drug Control Strategy of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. The overarching goal of the President's Strategy is to reduce drug use in America through a balanced approach that focuses on stopping use before it starts, healing America's drug users, and disrupting the market for illegal…

This occasional paper serves as a supplement to one of four annual monographs from the Monitoring the Future (MTF) study, written by the study's investigators and published by the study's sponsor, the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The full 2009 survey results are reported in "Monitoring the Future National Survey Results on Drug Use,…

This report offers data on juvenile drug use and crime so as to increase understanding of the dimensions of drug use among youthful offenders. The report includes information from collaborative efforts at both the Federal and the local levels. Data on male juvenile arrestees and detainees were collected in 12 Drug Use Forecasting (DUF) sites…

This project is part of a multi-year program to gather detailed information about substance-use patterns among Texans. Investigators interviewed a total of 946 youths, age 10 to 17, as they entered Texas Youth Commission (TYC) reception facilities. Results show that 81% of TYC youth have used illicit substances--51% in their last month on the…

This book combines in a single volume the findings of basic research and clinical studies conducted on the effects of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs on the fetus, the mother, and the baby after birth and through lactation. It first outlines changing perspectives on teratology (the study of causes for birth defects), as knowledge about the…

The first National Drug Control Strategy set ambitious two and five-year performance based goals: (1) to lower the rate of drug use by 10 percent over 2 years among both youth and adults; and (2) to lower the rate by 25 percent over 5 years. The chapters in this updated version are keyed to the strategies three priorities: (1) Stopping Use Before…