Results from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) were released on Thursday, September 8 and reveal good news. Drug use among teens continues to decline and overall drug use is trending in the right direction -- downward. ONDCP Director John Walters noted that a balanced drug control strategy is paying off, especially with the most important audience: young people. Walters also noted that follow through will be needed in certain areas to combat rising prescription drug abuse and methamphetamine use rates that remained flat last year
 
Other Topline Findings:

• Overall 9 percent decline in illicit drug use among American youth between the ages of 12 and 17 from 2002 to 2004.

• Marijuana use declined by 7 percent among young adults between the ages of 18 and 25 during this same period. Marijuana continues to be the most commonly used illicit drug, with a rate of 6.1 percent (14.6 million current users) for the U.S. population 12 and older.

• New Drug Users: The drug category with the largest number of recent initiates in 2004 was non medical use of pain relievers (2.4 million new users), followed by marijuana (2.1 million new users), non medical use of tranquilizers (1.2 million new users) and cocaine (1.0 million new users).

View the full NSDUH survey.