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Dip in drug usage rate among young Americans
BY PREMSHANKARDAS
11th September, 2005: Young America is shunning drugs. At least this seems to be the trend if Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt's announcement on a 9 percent dip in illicit drug use among American youth between the ages of 12 and 17
from 2002 to 2004 is to be taken into account.
As per the official statement, Marijuana use dropped by 7 percent among young adults between the ages of 18
and 25 during the period. It may be noted that Marijuana is most commonly used illicit drug.
About 6.1% o the US citizens older than 12 use it, taking the figure of the users to around 14.6 million users.
The figures released by Leavitt are the outcome of the 2004 National Survey on Drug Use and Health
(NSDUH) released on September 8, at the annual National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month media conference.
Though the number of users dipped, the data show that 19.1 million Americans, or 7.9 per cent of those more
than 12 years are using illicit drugs. This
rate was around 8 percent in 2002 and 2003.
The current users in the data means those surveyed had used it in the past month. Use of marijuana among boys
in the 12-17 age group, registered a decline from 9.1 % in 2002 to 8.1% in 2004. Interestingly use of
Marijuana among girls in the same age group remained flat at 7% in the comparable period.
The highest illicit drug users age category, which is the 18-25 age group, also registered a decline in
Marijuana use from 17.3 percent in 2002 to 16.1 per cent in 2004.
Hallucinogen use in this category also dipped from 1.9 per cent in 2002 to 1.5 per cent in 2004.
But despite this, an area of concern for the US health authorities has been identified as a rise in
non-medical use of prescription medications among the young adult population.
The survey found out that 6% of this category used non-prescription medications in the past month. Among
those surveyed, 29 per cent had used it in their life time.
The prevalence of this has increased from 2002 to 2004, from 22 per cent to 24 percent. Among the 18-25
young adult age group, Hydrocodone and oxycodone products showed a rise in lifetime use.
The survey revealed that among illicit drug users aged 12 and above, 56.8 percent used only marijuana. Illicit drug users who used marijuana and some other drug stood at 19.7 percent.. 23.6 % of those surveyed used only a drug other than marijuana.
Around 8.2 million illicit drug users use drugs other than marijuana.
The largest number of initiates in 2004 came from the non medical use of pain killers – 2.4 million. Marijuana came second with 2.1 million new users. Non medial use of tranquilizers had 1.2 million new users and cocaine had 1 million new users, according a statement.
BY PREMSHANKARDAS
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