Nation's Rate of Drug Abuse Rises Again
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) released the results of its 2009 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) on Thursday, September 16 at the 21st annual National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month, showing an increase in America’s overall illicit drug use by nearly 1%.
While the abuse of some substances have shown some decline over the past few years, the overall increase of substance use among Americans ages 12 and older has risen from 8.0% in 2008 to 8.7% in 2009. Gil Kerlikowske, director of the National Drug Control Policy, attributes most of this general increase to the growth of marijuana use. The rate of marijuana use among 12- to 17-year-olds—while it had initially declined between 2002 and 2008 from 8.2% to 6.7%—had again risen to 7.3% by 2009. Also, the perceived risk of using marijuana once or twice a week among this age group fell from 54.7% in 2007 to 49.3% in 2009—the first time since 2002 that less than half of adolescents held perceptions of harm from frequent marijuana use.
According to the survey, adolescents whose parents held stronger disapproval of marijuana use exhibited lower rates of marijuana use than their peers whose parents did not (4.8% of adolescents who perceived parental disapproval used marijuana or hashish vs. 31.3% of adolescents who did not perceive parental disapproval). Similarly, the overall rate of illicit substance use among individuals aged 18–25 also increased from 19.6% in 2008 to 21.2% in 2009, largely due to the increase in marijuana use.
Overall drug use among adolescents in 2009 (10%), although still below the percentage of drug use from 2002 (11.6%), exceeded the 2008 levels (9.3%). Adolescent tobacco use and underage drinking showed no distinct changes between 2008 and 2009, but the overall national rate of tobacco use did show a slight decline in 2009 to 23.3%—a now historic low for Americans ages 12 and older. Additionally, cocaine use has shown a dramatic decline since 2006 by 30%.
Other large increases in substance use—high, although not surprising due to recent trends—were among nonmedical use of prescription drugs, methamphetamine, and ecstasy. The national rate of prescription medication abuse rose from 2.5% in 2008 to 2.8% in 2009. During this same time period, the estimated number of methamphetamine users grew from 314,000 to 502,000. Likewise, the number of past-month ecstasy users was estimated to have increased from 555,000 in 2008 to 760,000 by 2009.
SAMHSA referred to the results from its latest NSDUH survey an alarming distress call to the nation’s families and community leaders. While prior prevention and intervention methods seemed to lower drug use among past generations of young people, the newer technological generation will require more innovative techniques that can more effectively relate to them and facilitate successful outreach. In order to do so, SAMHSA called upon the strength of all members of the community, including parents, teachers, religious leaders, and other recreational leaders, who all are in the position to effectively reach adolescents and young people in need.
In his public statement, Director Kerlikowske reiterated the need for more powerful communication between parents and their children in order to thwart this uptrend of tolerance and apathetic attitudes toward drug use and consequences which have risen over the past two years. Although the National Drug Control Strategy is on the right path for improved outreach thanks to its stronger focus on prevention, intervention, treatment, recovery, and conscientious law enforcement—Kerlikowske emphasized that the best preventive measures begin in the home.
The NSDUH survey is considered the most reliable national survey on the American population’s substance abuse and behavioral health. The 2009 survey included an estimated 67,500 people ages 12 and older from across the U.S. From this year’s findings, SAMHSA finds that almost 23.5 million Americans today are in need of substance abuse treatment (nearly 9.3% of the entire population), yet only a small fraction of this group will ever receive the specialized treatment they need (an approximate 11.2% of Americans with substance abuse problems).
Source: SAMHSA, National survey reveals increases in substance use from 2008 to 2009, September 16, 2010
