MORE TEENS SAY NO TO TOBACCO, YES TO POT

Smoking and Drinking Rates Hit 30 Year Low, but Marijuana Use Is on
the Rise, an Annual Survey Says.

Fewer teens drink and smoke cigarettes than in any time in the last
30 years, but the widespread availability of medical marijuana
appears to be fueling a rise in pot use, health experts said Wednesday.

One in four of the 47,000 teens surveyed for the 2011 Monitoring the
Future report said they had used marijuana during the last year, up
from 21.4% in 2007. The survey, which polled students nationwide in
the eighth, 10th and 12th grades, also found that 1 in 15 of the
oldest students used pot on a daily or near-daily basis - the highest
rate since 1981.

For the first time, researchers asked 12th-grade students about
synthetic marijuana, which contains cannabinoids and produces a high
similar to pot but is thought to be more dangerous because it can be
contaminated with unknown substances. The finding - 11% of the high
school seniors surveyed had tried the substance - surprised researchers.

Sold by the names Spice or K2, the drug had been widely available
online and in tobacco shops until recently. In February, the Drug
Enforcement Administration reclassified some of the chemicals found
in the products as Schedule I controlled substances, which made them illegal.

The survey also revealed that teens don't think of marijuana as
dangerous. Because of that, "we can predict that use of marijuana is
going to increase," said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National
Institute on Drug Abuse, which funds the annual study.

That pot has become more widely used as more states legalize the use
of medical marijuana cannot be ignored, said R. Gil Kerlikowske,
director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

"We know that any substance that is legally available is more widely
used," he said.

The rise of marijuana use is largely responsible for an overall
increase in youth drug use over the last four years, said study
leader Lloyd Johnston of the University of Michigan's Institute for
Social Research, which conducts the annual survey. When marijuana is
taken out of the equation, the proportion of teens reporting they had
used any illicit drug declined through the first half of the 2000s
and has been stable over the last three years.

Since 1991, the proportion of eighth-grade students who said they had
used alcohol within the last 30 days has declined by half, to 13%,
the survey found. Rates have also fallen among older students, with
binge-drinking among seniors dropping from 41% in 1981 to 22% this
year. Still, about 40% of high school seniors said they had used
alcohol within the last 30 days.

Cigarette use fell in all three age groups, which was reassuring
since the 2010 survey hinted that the decades-long decline in smoking
may have begun to reverse, Johnston said. In all three grades
combined, 11.7% of youths said they had smoked within the last 30
days, down from 12.8% in the 2010 survey.

Declines were also seen in the use of inhalants, crack cocaine, the
painkiller Vicodin, the medication Adderall for attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder, and over-the-counter cold and cough medicines.

Use of prescription drugs without medical supervision remains a
concern. In 2011, 22% of high school seniors said they had misused at
least one prescription drug at some point in their lives - the same
rate recorded in the 2007 survey. About 15% reporting misusing such
drugs within the last year, compared with 16% in 2007.

"We are heartened by some of the results ... but there is much more
work to do," said Dr. Howard K. Koh, assistant secretary for health
for the Department of Health and Human Services.