Teens Turn Corner in Opioid Crisis, Abuse at All-Time Low

“It is important to note that some research suggests that many teens do not actually know what is in the device they are using, and even if they read the label, not all labeling is consistent or accurate,” the institute emphasized.

Nearly 52 percent of 12th graders said “just flavoring,” according to the survey, when asked what they thought they were inhaling the last time they vaped.

The next biggest group, 32.8 percent, reported “nicotine,” raising red flags for researchers.

“We are especially concerned because the survey shows that some of the teens using these devices are first-time nicotine users,” Volkow said. “Recent research suggests that some of them could move on to regular cigarette smoking, so it is critical that we intervene with evidence-based efforts to prevent youth from using these products.”

This year 79.8 percent of eighth graders reported that they disapprove of regularly vaping nicotine, but the number dropped to 71.8 percent among 12th graders.

More than 1 in 10 of 12th graders surveyed reported that they had vaped with nicotine in the past month, and about 1 in 20 reported using marijuana in their devices.

While daily smoking has dropped, daily marijuana use among 12th graders has remained relatively consistent for the past decade, the survey found.

Among the three grade years combined, marijuana use ticked up slightly in 2017 to 23.9 percent, from 22.6 percent last year, but the researchers note that the 2015 rate was 23.7 percent.

“The survey indicates that significantly fewer teens now disapprove of regular marijuana use, with 64.7 percent of 12th graders voicing disapproval, compared to 68.5 percent last year,” according to a statement from the institute.

Another shift in marijuana attitudes is apparent in the 14.1 percent of 12th graders who saw “great risk” in smoking marijuana occasionally. Researchers say this number represents “a staggering drop from 40.6 percent in 1991,” but that last year’s rate of 17.1 percent was similar to the rate of 18.1 percent when the survey was started in 1975.

Regional bias could play a role here. Researchers found that “high school seniors in states with medical marijuana laws are more likely to have vaped marijuana and consumed marijuana edibles than their counterparts without such laws.”

The survey also studied inhalants, noting that this is the “one category of drug use that is typically higher among younger students.”

Though the rate of inhalant use among eighth graders was at 3.8 percent in 2016, it is back up this year to 2015 levels, measured at 4.7 percent.

Inhalant use peaked in 1995 when 12.8 percent of eighth graders had reported using an inhalant to get high that year.

“Overall, illicit drug use other than marijuana and inhalants, remains the lowest in the history of the survey in all three grades, with 13.3 percent of 12th graders reporting past year use, compared to 9.4 percent of 10th graders and 5.8 percent of eighth graders,” according to the institute’s statement on the survey.

George Koob, director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, said the findings about binge drinking may signal that activists have more work to do when it comes to preventative efforts.

“While binge drinking among eighth, 10th, and 12th grade students remains well below the levels seen a decade ago, the downward trend in binge drinking appears to have slowed somewhat in recent years,” Koob said in a statement.

Researchers found that cocaine use peaked among teens in 1999 at 6.2 percent of 12th graders; steroid use among this group peaked at 2.5 percent in 2004; and LSD peaked in 1996 at 8.8 percent.

While 11.3 percent of 12th graders reported using synthetic marijuana products like K2 and Spice five years ago, that number dropped in 2017 to 3.7 percent.

There was a significant change, however, in how eighth graders view these drugs. “In 2017, 23 percent said trying it [K2/Spice] once or twice would put users at great risk, compared to 27.5 percent in 2016,” the institute reported.

Ritalin misuse is at a near-record low of 1.3 percent, but the survey found that misuse of Adderall by 12th graders ranked in at 5.5 percent this year. While stable as compared with last year, the Adderall numbers represent “a significant drop for this age group from five years ago when misuse peaked at 7.6 percent.”

The survey has been measuring hookah smoking since 2010 and found that the trend had dropped in 2017 for the second year in a row. While seniors reported having smoked hookah at a rate of 22.9 percent in 2014, that number was down to 13 percent last year and just 10.1 percent in 2017.

Cigars have been included in the survey since 2010. About 23 percent of seniors reported having smoked cigars that year, but the number sank to 13.3 percent in 2017.

Follow @bleonardcns

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