The number of American youths who tell researchers that they used illicit drugs within the last year continues to inch downward, but the annual Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey also found stubbornly high levels of prescription-drug abuse and an end to the decline in smoking among young teens.

The survey of 50,000 8th-, 10th- and 12th-graders found that the overall percentage of U.S. youths using alcohol or other drugs declined modestly in 2006, continuing a decade-long trend. Since the mid-1990s, past-year use of marijuana has fallen 36 percent among 8th-graders, 28 percent among 10th-graders, and 18 percent among 12th-graders. That led Bush administration drug czar John Walters to cite a "substance-abuse sea change among American teens."

"They are getting the message that dangerous drugs damage their lives and limit their futures," said Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP).

The University of Michigan, which produced the report, took a more nuanced view, noting that while there was little evidence of increased drug use, reported overall declines in adolescent drug use were relatively small, and that use of many drugs -- including inhalants, LSD, powder cocaine, crystal methamphetamine, heroin, and club drugs like Ketamine, Rohypnol, and GHB -- did not decline at all.

Lloyd Johnson, Ph.D., principal investigator of the study, expressed particular concern about a decline in perceived risk of using inhalants. Use of inhalants did not increase in 2006, according to the study, but inhalant use has been rising among American youth in recent years. "Perceived risk is often a leading indicator of changes in actual use," said Johnston. "So when we see a change like this, we take it as an early warning of trouble ahead."

Prescription Drug Misuse "Unacceptably High"

Misuse of prescription drugs, which also has risen sharply in recent years, did not increase in 2006, but remained at "unacceptably high levels," according to a press release from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), which sponsors the survey. About 9 percent of 2006 survey respondents said they had used prescription narcotic drugs like OxyContin and Vicodin within the past year, and between 4 and 7 percent of 8th- to 12th-graders said they had used over-the-counter cold medicines -- typically containing dextromethorphan -- to get high.

"Because most of the illegal drugs like LSD, ecstasy, cocaine and heroin have shown considerable declines in recent years, while the misuse of prescription drugs has been growing, the latter have become a more important part of the country's drug problem," noted Johnston.

Elias A. Zerhouni, director of the National Institutes on Health, said that the "rise in prescription drug abuse among the younger grades and the intentional abuse of over-the-counter medications are very disturbing. These findings point to the continuing need to educate our young people about the potential for harm when drugs are taken without a physician's supervision."

Linda A. Suydam, president of the Consumer Healthcare Products Association, said that the survey "underscores the critical need for education and awareness about the troubling trend of teenagers taking vast amounts of otherwise safe medicines -- both prescription and nonprescription -- to get high. Substance-abuse experts tell us -- and we agree -- that education is the most effective way to keep kids from abusing all types of substances, including medicines."

"Great News" on Marijuana Use Cited

Use of marijuana, the nation's most commonly used illicit drug, has been the main focus of the ONDCP's antidrug media campaign. Not surprisingly, federal officials this week celebrated the fact that past-month use of marijuana reported by MTF survey participants has fallen 26 percent since 2001, from 16.6 percent of teens in 2001 to 12.5 percent in 2006. NIDA Director Nora Volkow called this finding "great news."

The Marijuana Policy Project, however, issued a report saying that prohibition of marijuana does not deter youth use of the drug. The report eschewed the recent statistics for a longer view, saying that use of marijuana has increased 4,000 percent since the drug was outlawed in the early 20th century.

Students for Sensible Drug Policy, meanwhile, chose to tweak the drug czar's office, putting out a tongue-in-cheek chart noting that drug use has decreased at about the same rate as funding for ONDCP's antidrug media campaign has declined.

This year, Congress approved a modest new media campaign on underage drinking, which the MTF report said has fallen significantly in recent years among 8th, 10th, and 12th-graders. However, the 2006 report found that past-month drinking and drunkenness reported by adolescents either declined only slightly or not at all.

Alarm About Youth Smoking Trends

University of Michigan researchers also sounded an alarm about youth smoking, saying the MTF findings indicate that the trend toward lower smoking rates among children in their early and middle teens has ended. While current daily smoking has fallen by half among 12th-graders and more than half among 8th- and 10th-graders since the mid-1990s, no further declines were reported in the 2006 survey among 8th- and 10th-graders (daily smoking declined slightly among 12th-graders, from 13.6 percent in 2005 to 12.2 percent in 2006).

Perceived risk of smoking also has leveled off, which researchers said could be due to slackening public attention and publicity about the dangers of smoking. On the other hand, lifetime use of cigarettes has declined by about half among 8th-graders, by 40 percent among 10th-graders, and by 30 percent among 12th-graders since the mid-1990s. Overall smoking rates among all three grades are at an all-time low, and disapproval of smoking among teens is still rising among teens.

"Like other recent surveys, the 2006 [MTF] shows that the nation's progress in reducing youth smoking has stalled or slowed to a crawl," said William Corr, executive director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. "[F]or the third year in a row, the survey finds no statistically significant change in smoking rates for any of the three age groups. This survey is another clear warning that the nation's progress in reducing smoking is at risk unless elected officials at all levels redouble efforts to implement proven measures to reduce tobacco use."

Corr called for states to increase tobacco taxes, increase funding for tobacco prevention programs, and pass public-smoking bans, and said Congress needs to pass legislation giving the U.S. Food and Drug Administration the power to regulate tobacco products and marketing.