According to the 2003 Partnership Attitude Tracking Study, an estimated 23.6 million teens are in grades seven through 12 in America today. Of them:

• 10.8 million (46 percent of the teen population) have tried illegal drugs¹;
• 8.4 million (36 percent) have used illegal drugs in the past year².;
• 5.6 million (24 percent) – nearly one out of every four teens in the nation – have used illegal drugs in the past 30 days³.

Here’s a look at which drugs kids are using: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

According to Monitoring the Future, adolescent drug use in America peaked in 1979, declined steadily throughout the 1980s and climbed once again from 1992 to 1996. Drug use then remained relatively stable until 2003, when it declined again.

Overall drug use among American teens is down by statistically significant percentages compared to 1998:

• Trial use (or experimentation, defined as having used a drug at least once) is down to 46 percent in 2003 from 51 percent in 1998¹.
• Past-year use is down to 36 percent from 41 percent².
• Past-month use is down to 24 percent from 27 percent³.

Furthermore, teen use of Ecstasy has fallen significantly over the past year from 11 percent to 9 percent. Ecstasy use still remains above the 1998 level of 7 percent. Teen experimentation with Ecstasy is now similar to adolescent consumption of cocaine/crack and methamphetamine.

By far, marijuana remains the most widely used illegal drug among teens. In fact, as the following table shows, the number of teens that have used marijuana in the past 30 days is higher than the number of teens that have ever tried any one other illegal drug.

Drug	Percentage of Teens Who Have Used It	Number of Teens Who Have Used It
Marijuana	39 percent	9.1 million
Marijuana - Past Year	31 percent	7.3 million
Marijuana - Past Month	20 percent	4.7 million
Inhalants	18 percent	4.3 million
Ecstasy	9 percent	2.2 million
Methamphetamine	9 percent	2.2 million
LSD	8 percent	1.9 million
Cocaine/Crack	7 percent	1.7 million
Heroin	4 percent	1.0 million

A final note: while marijuana remains the most widely used illegal drug among teens, the number of teens who have used marijuana is dwarfed by the number of teens who have tried alcohol and/or tobacco cigarettes. According to Monitoring the Future, 76.6 percent of 12^th graders alone have tried alcohol; 53.7 percent of 12^th graders have tried tobacco cigarettes. Both of these figures have been declining in recent years.

Research shows that anti-drug campaigns are working. Together we continue to keep drug use down among teens. Please support us by making a tax-deductible donation today.

¹Net marijuana, crack/cocaine, LSD, Ecstasy, heroin, inhalants, methamphetamine trial use, PATS data.
² Net marijuana, crack/cocaine, inhalants, methamphetamine past year use, PATS data.
³Net marijuana, crack/cocaine, inhalants, methamphetamine trial use, PATS data.