Modern Teens too smart to smoke ... what's your excuse?
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"Jerri Blavitt??" n...@never.no
Thursday, December 14, 2000 By Pete Yost WASHINGTON - Illicit drug use among teen-agers held steady in 2000 for the fourth straight year, and cigarette smoking declined significantly, the government reported Thursday.
The annual Monitoring the Future survey, a benchmark for teen drug, alcohol and tobacco use, had mostly good news, with drops among eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders. But it also found use of the drug ecstasy, a favorite at dance clubs, increasing for the second year running. And the number of high school seniors using heroin hit its highest point since the survey began in 1975.
The survey of 45,000 students in 435 randomly chosen schools nationwide found that use of cocaine and hallucinogens such as LSD dropped, with marijuana use unchanged from 1999.
The results were being released by Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala and Barry McCaffrey, White House drug policy director.
After increasing through the mid-1990s, teen drug use leveled off - and in some cases, dropped - in 1996. This year, usage was steady no matter how it was measured - in the last month, year or ever.
The survey, which teens fill out anonymously, found that between 1997 and 2000:
-For eighth-graders, use of any drug fell from 22.1 percent to 19.5 percent.
-For 10th-graders, it fell from 38.5 percent to 36.4 percent.
-For 12th-graders, it fell from 42.4 percent to 40.9 percent.
The survey also looked at specific drugs and found that 36.5 percent of seniors had used marijuana in the past year. For 10th-graders, it was nearly as high - 32.2 percent, and for eighth-graders, 15.6 percent. Those figures were all steady from 1999.
Marijuana use peaked in 1979, when just over half of seniors used the substance. The low for marijuana use among 12th-graders was 1992, when just over one in five used it.
Alcohol use remained widespread, though largely unchanged, with nearly three in four high school seniors drinking at least once in the past year. It was two in three for 10th-graders, and just over 40 percent for eighth- graders.
A smaller but still significant chunk of teens reported binge drinking at least once in the two weeks before the survey. Thirty percent of 12th-graders, 26.2 percent of 10th-graders and 14.1 percent of eighth-graders said they had binged, defined as consuming five or more drinks in a row.
Binge drinking peaked in 1981 at 41 percent and the low was 27.5 percent in 1993.
With intense focus on smoking in the last few years, cigarette use dropped significantly.
Last year, 34.6 percent of seniors reported smoking in the past month, falling to 31.4 percent this year. The percentage of eighth-graders who used cigarettes in the past month fell from 17.5 percent last year to 14.6 percent.
There were a few danger signs, including an increase in the use of MDMA, known as ecstasy, among eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders. Just over 8 percent of seniors said they had used ecstasy in the past year, up from 5.6 percent in 1999.
And among high school seniors, the percentage of seniors who used heroin crept up from 1.1 percent last year to 1.5 percent this year - the first significant increase in a number of years. That's the highest percentage since the study began.
The survey also found:
-The percentage of high school seniors who used cocaine in the past year fell from 6.2 percent to 5 percent. Past year use of crack fell from 2.7 percent to 2.2 percent,
-Among seniors, past year use of hallucinogens dropped from 9.4 percent in 1999 to 8.1 percent this year.
The study conducted by the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research and financed by the National Institute on Drug Abuse has tracked illicit drug use among 12th-graders since 1975. In 1991, eighth- and 10th-graders were added to the study
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"Did you really think we want those laws observed? said Dr. Ferris.
We WANT them to be broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against.... We're after power and we mean it .... There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals.
Well, when there aren't enough criminals one MAKES them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just p*** the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted--and you create a nation of law-breakers--
and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system Mr. Reardon, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with." --Ayn Rand
"Billie Boy" omega_industr...@yahoo.com
Yeah, well smoking tobacco is just plain dumb.
Weed is unhealthy for you to, but just not as bad, plus there's way more benifits of it than the bad.
Hahaahahahaha, I gotta laugh at the dumb losers using Herion and Coke, they are just plain ****ed in the head. Scottie, good friend of mine, he smokes way to much for his own good. But he has allways said, when the teachers are talking about drugs, "If its not green, and it doesnt look like gr***, dont take it".
But I'm accually glad the the government is allways advertising that tobacco is bad for you.
My generation finally got the picture, well, most of them.
Sorry, I had to say "My generation". Because I'm stoned on some very very very good weed, and listening to Limp Bizkit. Yes, Fred Durst is a BIG HUGE loser, but the rest of the band is allright.
"pop slut" brian_c...@esatclear.ie
A full reply may follow, but until then...
...
12th-graders. But it also unchanged from 1999.
measured - in the last defined as consuming Damn lightweights.
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b m c ____ will swear for food icq47130468 ______________________________ www.misterridiculous.com/columns www.savantmag.com www.tbns.net/atii
"pop slut" brian_c...@esatclear.ie
Well painkillers are funny like that.
Why do I get the feeling you've never met anyone that actually uses it?
Yes, they do it so well. Which is why more girls are smoking than ever.
Which is why they still take huge profits from tax on cigarettes. Which is why...
No. No they are not. They suck in an almightily bad way. They are doing nothing new, they are rehashing old shit without even bothering to cover the fact up.
And if anything, at least Durst got to do the charming Ms Aguilara, which is more than you've done.
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b m c ____ will swear for food icq47130468 ______________________________ www.misterridiculous.com/columns www.savantmag.com www.tbns.net/atii
"Mike O'Sullivan" m...@barnaby0.demon.co.uk
Interesting report on the apparent reduction in smoking amongst teenage girls in the UK recently. Speculation was that the current fad for cellphones means that they're spending all their spare cash on phone vouchers,, leaving no money for smoking, which is now seen as rather p***e.
Who would have guessed that mobile phones could actually provide some benefit?
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12th-graders. But it also unchanged from 1999.
measured - in the last defined as consuming increase in a number of
"Billie Boy" omega_industr...@yahoo.com
Yeah.
But mobil phones have a bad side aswell.
Since teenagers are still growing their skull (its very thin) the radiation can cause series problems later. Worse sinerio is a brain tumor.
Damn, can't spell!
rumik ru...@sympatico.ca
Like the one in DirtyBugger's head?
That's okay. The anti-smokers here can't spell, count, think, or ****. Doesn't faze them a bit.
Boy.d ...@Hate.spammers (Dave Hitt)
Can't do science either, I see.
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What is the Green Party's real agenda?
http://www.davehitt.com/dec00/green1.html
-Dave Hitt hitt...@bigfoot.spamblocker.com (Remove "spamblocker" to reply)
"- alt.law-enforcement.corruption" n...@dont.email.me
Science is unnecessary to prohibit the PUBLIC consumption Davey ...
... take the challenge!
fernando- ...@redhotant.co.uk (Daniel Ratcliffe)
On Mon, 18 Dec 2000 09:27:26 -0000, "Mike O'Sullivan" Apart from slowly killing off those stupid enough to use them often?
*grin* ~Daniel * Maybe we don't want to live in a world where innocence is so short
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http://www.isis-29.demon.co.uk - always a work in progress email: xa...@redhotant.co.uk - UIN: 6302265 "if you think you're strong enough, if you think you belong enough"
"Billie Boy" omega_industr...@yahoo.com
Dat's what I said.
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