What Is the Riskiest Teen Behavior? Survey Says …
SodaHead Living
2010/06/09 15:00:00
Looks like plenty of teens are breaking into mom and dad’s medicine cabinet.
When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asked teenagers if they had ever used a prescription drug that wasn't prescribed to them, 23 percent said "Yes," according to the CDC's new Youth Risk Behavior Survey.
The survey anonymously polled 16,000 high school students in 2009 about whether they had been drinking, smoking, using illegal drugs, or indulging in other risky behaviors.
Of the high school respondents:
72 percent had used alcohol at least once in their lives.
37 percent had used marijuana.
8 percent had used hallucinogenic drugs, such as LSD or mescaline.
6.7 percent had used ecstasy.
6 percent had used cocaine.
The alcohol stat may be the most frightening of all, given that drinking is a major contributor to the number one cause of teenage deaths, motor vehicle crashes.
Meanwhile, teenage abuse of ADHD drugs, like Adderal, has risen 76 percent in the past eight years, according to a study published last year in Pediatrics. And opioid drugs like OxyContin, which are widely prescribed to adults for pain relief, are the third-most-popular drugs of abuse for teenagers, according to U.S. News and World Report.
Which teen behavior do you think is riskiest?
When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asked teenagers if they had ever used a prescription drug that wasn't prescribed to them, 23 percent said "Yes," according to the CDC's new Youth Risk Behavior Survey.
The survey anonymously polled 16,000 high school students in 2009 about whether they had been drinking, smoking, using illegal drugs, or indulging in other risky behaviors.
Of the high school respondents:
72 percent had used alcohol at least once in their lives.
37 percent had used marijuana.
8 percent had used hallucinogenic drugs, such as LSD or mescaline.
6.7 percent had used ecstasy.
6 percent had used cocaine.
The alcohol stat may be the most frightening of all, given that drinking is a major contributor to the number one cause of teenage deaths, motor vehicle crashes.
Meanwhile, teenage abuse of ADHD drugs, like Adderal, has risen 76 percent in the past eight years, according to a study published last year in Pediatrics. And opioid drugs like OxyContin, which are widely prescribed to adults for pain relief, are the third-most-popular drugs of abuse for teenagers, according to U.S. News and World Report.
Which teen behavior do you think is riskiest?
Top Opinion
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Kiko 2010/06/09 16:56:14
+5I grew up in a small town in the middle of nowhere. As a teenager, basically all of my friends drank and smoked. A few of my group, including me went a little further to other drugs.. but never too crazy.. All in moderation. Well, I take that back, there were quite a few crack heads in my school. After I graduated high school and finished my first couple years of college I calmed down. Going back home, a lot of my old friends are still going strong in their old ways. However, after experiencing life in a different state and seeing how other people are raised I have come to the conclusion that because we were a small, boring town there wasn't anything else for us to do except try drugs (sexual things too).. I wouldn't be surprised if surveys had very different data depending on the region.
We have a generation of kids(14 to 30) who think they know it all, who think they invented every thing, correcting their elders all the time, Drug companies paying doctors to use their meds, school getting money from whoever to suggest kids have adhd started years ago. Doctors giving meds without the proper testing.
Anyone can go to a doctor now and say "I have this problem" First thing they do is give them meds, the next week the patient comes in "That did not work" they give another presciption, and it goes on and on. Sure there are meds all over the house. YOU got rich folks like "Rush" getting off taking this Oxycottin. Kids hear about this , they know it all, so what happens. You got sex addicts going to high paid clinics. You got people coming on these reality shows doing stupid stuff.
as far as I know they are the most dangerous.
I believe the first two are addictive to some degree, and that taking ecstasy more than once everyone 2-3 will have serious negative effects on your brain.
hallucinogenic drugs, and weed are the least addictive, with weed not doing much but making you hungry
I don't believe that only 37 percent had used marijuana....it sounds pretty low to me.
Most dangerous would probably be drugs in general.
As for the prescription stats-I take my father's Singulair. There's nothing wrong with that, especially since it's the only thing I've found that still works for me and it doesn't work for him.
The riskiest teen behavior? Flying in an airplane.
I mean, WHY drug yourself if you don't have to!?!
Its everywhere and being put in foods and water without people knowing about it as giant experiments it will only get worse if people persist to sit on their hands.
And they claim Marijuana is SOOOO bad, but every single drug you can get legally can harm you, most of which will harm you worse than marijuana ever could.
The three most commonly used drugs for date rape are alcohol and two prescription-strength sleep aids. The two prescription drugs are GHB, also known as gamma-hydroxybutyric acid, and benzodiazepines (such as flunitrazepam, also known as Rohypnol or "roofies"