Marijuana, Prescription Pills Remain Popular Among High School Students
Because of the national debate on whether to legalize marijuana for medical uses, more teenagers believe it is safe. Many of today's teenagers also believe that prescription drugs, Ecstasy and LSD are safe to use, which means more teens will experiment with these in the future.
- Only 44.8 percent of today's eighth-graders believe that smoking marijuana poses "a great risk" compared to 48 percent last year.
- Over 20 percent of high school seniors said they had smoked marijuana in the past month.
The survey found that the use of prescription narcotics rose among this year's 10th graders:
- 8 percent said they had used Vicodin in the past 12 months, compared to 6.7 percent last year.
- For OxyContin, those figures were 3.6 last year and 5.1 percent this year.
- About 44 percent said they had taken at least one alcoholic drink in the past month, which shows little change from last year.
- Recreational use of Ritalin, a drug prescribed for Attention Deficit Disorder, is slightly down.
Labels: marijuana, prescription_drug_abuse









