Drug & Alcohol Teen Statistics
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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
