14 DAY TRIAL // According to the results of a new scientific investigation, it would appear that tobacco use among teens in the United States is steadily declining. Cigarette smoking also declined significantly, whereas marijuana use remained at consistent levels, with no discernible modifications.
When analyzing tobacco consumption patterns, researchers didn't take only cigarettes into account, but also hookahs, small cigars and smokeless tobacco, among other things. They noticed that the overall trend was for fewer and fewer people to pick up smoking, and for more to quit the habit.
One of the best news the new study brought was that both cigarette and alcohol consumption patterns were at their lowest point in the past quarter-century, especially for kids in the 8th through 12th grade.
Datasets used for this investigation were collected from the Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey, which was started in 1975. The US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) funds this investigation, one of the three most important such surveys still ongoing in the US today.
The official report also indicated that pills are constantly being abuse, and that no diminishing tendency can be found in this habit. The exact same thing is true for marijuana use patterns, which have a tendency to remain rather unchanged over the years.
The investigation focused on three age groups – kids in the 8th, 10th and 12th grades. “That cigarette use has declined to historically low rates is welcome news, given our concerns that declines may have slowed or stalled in recent years,” says Dr. Nora D. Volkow.
She is the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), a part of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). “That said, the teen smoking rate is declining much more slowly than in years past, and we are seeing teens consume other tobacco products at high levels,” the expert says.
“This highlights the urgency of maintaining strong prevention efforts against teen smoking and of targeting other tobacco products,” the expert argues. Over the past few years, the number and scope of programs meant to prevent kids from starting to smoke has increased significantly.
Previous statistical analyses have indicated that these campaigns are efficient to some extent. However, when kids start smoking, they usually do so encouraged by their peers. In such social environments, a poster does not have anything to say.
Still, creating the mindset necessary to be able to refuse a lit cigarette is the most important achievement these campaigns boast. Their influence is visible in the new NIDA numbers.
The report shows that only 18.7 percent of 12th graders reported recent tobacco consumption, down from the all-time high of 36.5 percent, recorded in 1997. In 2006, about 21.6 percent of teens had smoked during the last month before their interviews.
Back in 1996, about 21 percent of eight-graders reported current smoking habits. In the 2011 analysis, only 6.1 percent did so, marking a strong decrease, PsychCentral reports. Five years ago, about 8.7 percent of kids in this age group smoked.
When it comes to marijuana, usage levels increased only slight, from 31.5 percent / 5 percent daily use among 12th graders in 2006 to 36.4 percent / 6.6 percent daily use in 2011. Researchers believe that this increase is due to the fact that teens now perceive marijuana as being less dangerous than half a decade ago.