More teens say "No!" to smoking and drugs.

Smoking is losing its cool. Three-quarters of teenagers say they would prefer to date a nonsmoker. That's just one encouraging finding in the latest study on smoking and drug use among teens conducted by the University of Michigan for the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). The annual study, named Monitoring the Future (MTF), confirms a decade-long trend away from tobacco and drugs.

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According to the latest MTF report, published in December 2004, the perception of cigarette smoking as harmful significantly increased among 8th and 10th graders. As for actual smoking, the study has been chronicling a decline since a peak in the mid- 1990s. Since then, the number of 8th and 10th graders who said they smoke has dropped by one-half, but only by one-third among 12th graders. However, the rate of decline is slowing.

The MTF also reported a nearly seven percent decline from 2003 to 2004 in the number of 8th, 10th and 12th grade students saying they had used illicit drugs during the past month. A trend analysis tracked a cumulative 17 percent drop in drug use between 2001 and 2004, including 18 percent less marijuana use. "There are now 600,000 fewer teens using drugs than there were in 2001," said John Walters, Director of National Drug Control Policy. "This is real progress. We know that if we can prevent kids from trying drugs in their teenage years, we dramatically reduce the likelihood that they will go on to have problems later in life."

SOURCE:

"Monitoring the Future"--report by University of Michigan for the National Institute on Drug Abuse http://www.nida.nih.gov/Newsroom/04/NR12-21.html