This report finds that adolescent smoking, drinking, misusing prescription drugs and using illegal drugs is, by any measure, a public health problem of epidemic proportion, presenting clear and present danger to millions of America's teenagers and severe and expensive long-range consequences for the entire population. This report is a wake-up call…

This publication is one of a series summarizing recent research on adolescent drug abuse and its prevention. The report provides an overview of research and reviews its implications for dealing with substance abuse among Latino youth, placing new information in the context of past findings. Research has shown that drug use patterns in several…

Although concern about adolescent drug use has grown over the past two decades, strategies for controlling use have not kept pace. Project ALERT (Adolescent Learning Experiences in Resistance Training), a school-based program, specifically targets cigarettes, alcohol and marijuana, the so-called gateway drugs. It is based on the social influence…

Used the "social deviance model" to investigate whether low self esteem (SE) was differentially related to substance use for respondents in varying cultural norms. Responses to intensity of tobacco, marijuana, alcohol and drug use, SE and cultural norm items from over 2,000 high school and college students failed to support this model. (KW)

Compared generic tobacco use among Hispanic, White, Black, and Asian youths (N=4,980) in grades 4, 7, 10, and 12. Found prevalence of regular use was highest among Whites, followed by Hispanics, Blacks, and Asians. Marijuana, alcohol, and other drug use explained approximately 40 percent of variance in tobacco use in each ethnic group. Other…

Eighth grade followup of Adolescent Decision-Making Program implemented in sixth grade showed intervention maintained positive effect on mean tobacco use; no differences for mean alcohol, marijuana, or hard drug use between experimentals (n=545) and controls (n=530). Attrition analyses suggest that positive effect for tobacco use was likely even…

Analyzes survey data from over 400 junior high school students in grades 7 and 8 to determine the relations among family drug use factors; peer drug use factors; school problems; psychosocial concerns; alcohol, marijuana, and other drug use; and abstinence. (SLD)

The UK has the highest rate of cannabis use among young people worldwide. Dr. Alan Leshner, Director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse reports, "Every year more than 100,000 people, most of them adolescents, seek treatment for their inability to control their marijuana use." According to the Scottish Drug Misuse Statistics in…

This study examined long-term effects of a school/family/community substance abuse prevention partnership intervention lead by a Midwestern school district. Previous findings suggested that the program contributed to decreased tobacco and marijuana, but not alcohol, use prior to and after implementation between 1987 and 1991. The current study…

Objective: To study drug-related beliefs among adolescents, and specifically their propensity to distinguish "soft drugs" from "hard drugs"; to investigate factors associated with such a propensity as well as its relationship with cannabis use. Design & setting: A cross-sectional self-administered survey conducted among a random sample of 5,812…

The authors examined changes in college students' illicit drug use, patterns of polydrug use, and the relationship between students' ages of initiation of substance use and later use of marijuana and other illicit drugs between 1993 and 2001. Data from 119 US colleges and universities in the Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study…

The Education-Drug Use Connection focused primarily on a nationwide sample of adolescents, first surveyed when they were nearing the end of 8th grade in the years 1991, 1992, and 1993, and followed biennially for eight years thereafter. (Full details on samples and methods are provided in Bachman et al., 2008, and are not repeated here.) The…

The Supreme Court in 1985 first addressed the issue of balance between a student's right to privacy as stated in the Fourth Amendment and school officials' need to maintain safety. This chapter summarizes the case, explores the meaning of the court opinion, and briefly discusses other issues. The case involved a 14-year-old girl (T.L.O.) whose…

The use of licit and illicit drugs by American young people has been a source of major policy and public health concerns for the United States since the mid-1960s. The use of these substances is a leading cause of eventual disease and death in the population, but it also contributes in important ways to mortality and morbidity during adolescence. …

This study assesses the differential substance use between male and female college students through the administration of a survey of recent use of six commonly used psychoactive substances (cigarettes, chewing tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, and caffeine). It investigates the situational contexts associated with use of particular substances…