Teenage drug use has always been a problem; however, teenagers in today’s age changed the  trends of drug use.

According to a 2017 report by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, “Across all grades, past-year use of inhalants, heroin, methamphetamine, alcohol, cigarettes, and synthetic cannabinoids are at their lowest by many measures.”

The report called, Monitoring the Future, conducted by researchers at the  University of Michigan, Ann Arbor is done under a grant from the National Institute on drug abuse. 45, 473 students are surveyed from 372 public and private schools, ranging from 8th to 12th grade. This is an annual survey that has been going on since 1975.

This report also included that this past year’s misuse of vicodin among high school seniors has dropped “dramatically”, following the dropping trend within the past 5 years.

As for the decline on cigarettes, the report states in 2016, 10.5 percent of 12th graders use cigarettes, followed by 4.9% of 10th graders, and 2.6% of 8th graders.

drugabuse.gov shows that teens are more likely to use E-cigarettes than cigarettes. According to the American Lung Association, there has been a 900% increase among high school students in the use of these products.

The long term effects/dangers of E-cigarettes are largely unknown; however, the Food and Drug Administration announced on May 5th, 2016, that it was extending its authority to include monitoring e-cigarettes. 62.8% of students surveyed claimed they believe their E-cigarettes contains just flavoring.

As for alcohol use, according to the NIH, the numbers of teenage alcohol use have followed the trend of decreasing. Falling to 19.9% reporting use among high school sophomores, and 7.3% among eighth graders.

The report revealed that 68.9% of high school seniors do not view regular marijuana smoking as harmful, but 68.5% say they disapprove of regular marijuana smoking. The rates of high school seniors who smoke marijuana in 2015 remained about the same as in 2016.

When asked about the effects of today’s trends of drug use, Becky Gordon, the Arrowhead High School Associate Principal, says, “I believe students have been told over and over how using drugs can affect their grades, friendships, overall health and behavior, but I worry that students don’t realize the effect drugs can have on their minds.

“What you do as a teen can affect your cognitive abilities as an adult, so it’s important to live a healthy, drug-free lifestyle as a teenager. Many kids think I’m young, it’s no big deal, I’ll quit  or it’s not affecting me now, I’m too young or I haven’t done that many drugs, I’m only 16.
“Drug use [and] abuse can impact the brain’s ability to function in the short-term: lowered grades due to lack of focus/motivation, poor decision making, mood swings, etc., as well as prevent proper growth and development for later in life.
“Long story short: what you do as a teenager DOES affect what you become as an adult and those effects CAN be permanent!”