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Drug & Alcohol Teen Statistics

from the Dallas Council on Drug & Alcohol Abuse

http://www.gdcada.org/statistics/teens.htm

• Teenagers whose parents talk to them regularly about the dangers of drugs are 42% less likely to use drugs than those whose parents don't, yet only 1 in 4 teens reports having these conversations.¹
• Alcohol is the most commonly used drug among young people.²
• Alcohol kills 6½ times more youth than all other illicit drugs combined.²
• Youth who drink alcohol are 50 times more likely to use cocaine than young people who never drink alcohol.²
• 40% of those who started drinking at age 14 or younger later developed alcohol dependence, compared with 10% of those who began drinking at age 20 or older.²
  
• 65% of the youth who drink alcohol report that they get the alcohol they drink from family and friends.²
• 10% of teens say that they have been to a rave, and ecstasy was available at more than two-thirds of these raves.³
• Although it is illegal to sell and distribute tobacco products to youth under age 18, most underage smokers are able to buy tobacco products.²
• Underage drinking costs the U.S. more than $58 billion every year – enough to buy every public school student a state-of-the-art computer.⁴
• 28% of teens know a friend or classmate who has used ecstasy, with 17% knowing more than one user.³
• By the 8th grade, 52% of adolescents have consumed alcohol, 41% have smoked cigarettes, and 20% have used marijuana.²
• In 2000, more than 60% of teens said drugs were used, kept, or sold at their school.³
• 50% of high school seniors report drinking alcohol in the past 30 days with 32% report being drunk at least once in the same period.²
• Most people begin smoking as adolescents. Among youths who smoke, the average age of initiation is 12.5 years of age.²
• Drivers age 21–29 drive the greatest proportion of their miles drunk. (Miller et al., 1996c)
• Traffic crashes are the greatest single cause of death for all persons age 6–33. About 45% of these fatalities are alcohol-related crashes.²

¹ Partnership for A Drug-Free America
² Substance Abuse: The Nation’s Number One Health Problem
³ National Survey of Substance Abuse Attitudes, Feb. 2001
⁴ Mothers Against Drunk Driving