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NEWS: CNN.com 18 Jul 02: Survey: Teen drug, alcohol use lowest in decade

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BigTrancer

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Survey: Teen drug, alcohol use lowest in decade
July 18, 2002 Posted: 4:13 PM EDT (2013 GMT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Drug, alcohol and cigarette use among sixth- to 12th-graders is at the lowest level in years, partly because adults are doing more to keep their kids away from illicit substances, according to a survey released Wednesday.
Parents and teachers are warning students about drug use and encouraging kids to nurture other interests by joining extracurricular school and religious activities, the 2001-02 Pride Survey said.
The percentage of students using any illicit drug -- including marijuana, cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens and others -- dropped to 22.3 percent, the lowest level registered by the study since the 1993-94 school year.
The percentages of students who said they drank alcohol, 65 percent, or smoked cigarettes, 36 percent, in the previous 12 months were the lowest in the 15-year history of the Pride Surveys...
...
The national survey found some signs, however, that certain drugs have taken firm hold among teens. Among sixth- through eighth-graders, the use of cocaine, downers and heroin was unchanged for annual and monthly use. Monthly inhalant and hallucinogen use also remained level, the survey said.
Among 12th-graders, the monthly use of cocaine, heroin and steroids remained the same, according to the survey.
Full article at: http://www.cnn.com/2002/HEALTH/parenting/07/17/drug.survey.ap/index.html
BigTrancer :)
Click to expand...
 
Interesting to say the least!! kind of contrary to current belief isn't it?
 
It is an interesting article, but from my point of view, it's more interesting to read between the lines. Can we draw some interesting motivations out of the authors inferences, or are we jumping at shadows to mention such techniques as:
Contradictory conclusions
- Allowing alcohol and nicotine based results to impact on "illicit" drug use conclusions, showing that overall drug use is down.
- Later in the article, the statement is made that among large sections of the study population, illicit drug use has remained the same as previous studies.
Vague category descriptions
- Asking school childred to rate whether their teachers mention drugs "a lot" or "sometimes" or "all the time" is quite a vague way to subjectively break up the statistics
- Going from discrete data such as the above kind of broad category classification, to making numerically based conclusions on percentages of children using drugs is fraught with difficulty. It's difficult to draw good conclusions.
Drawing the long bow
- "The results, from data collected between August 2001 and last month, are the "best report on adolescent behaviors in over a decade" and may reflect a cultural reaction to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, officials said."
- Is this a shred of proof to show the War On Drugs/Terrorism are winning?
- Is this a concocted snowjob to prove that USA can take the high ground because something good is coming out of their own 'moral war'?
Lots of room for discussion of statistics, as usual, I think.
BigTrancer :)
 
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