Teenagers' drug use drops.Teenagers' drug use drops Self-reported use of illicit drugs by high-school seniors continued a decade-long decline in 1989, while alcohol and cigarettes remained the most widely used drugs among the students, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. a national survey released last week. The annual survey of 17,000 seniors is conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan (body, education) University of Michigan - A large cosmopolitan university in the Midwest USA. Over 50000 students are enrolled at the University of Michigan's three campuses. The students come from 50 states and over 100 foreign countries. in Ann Arbor. Overall, 19.7 percent said they had used an illicit drug in the previous month, compared with 21.3 percent in 1988 and nearly 40 percent in 1979. Seventeen percent of the seniors reported using marijuana in the prior month -- down from a peak of 37 percent in 1979. Cocaine consumption was reported by 2.8 percent of the students, sustaining a steady slide from 6.7 percent in 1985. Amphetamine amphetamine (ămfĕt`əmēn), any one of a group of drugs that are powerful central nervous system stimulants. Amphetamines have stimulating effects opposite to the effects of depressants such as alcohol, narcotics, and barbiturates. use in the previous month was about 4 percent last year, having dropped from 12 percent in 1980. The reported use of tranquilizers, barbiturates Barbiturates Definition Barbiturates are medicines that act on the central nervous system and cause drowsiness and can control seizures. Purpose and methaqualone meth·a·qua·lone n. A potentially habit-forming drug used as a sedative and hypnotic. methaqualone a nonbarbiturate hypnotic similar to barbiturates in its effects. remained at extremely low levels. However, disturbing signs also appeared. Reported use of PCP PCP abbr. 1. phencyclidine 2. primary care physician Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) , a hallucinogen hallucinogen Substance that produces psychological effects normally associated only with dreams, schizophrenia, or religious visions. It produces changes in perception (ranging from distortions in what is sensed to perceptions of objects where there are none), thought, and with dangerous effects, rose in the month before the survey from 0.3 percent in 1988 to 1.4 percent in 1989. Heroin use was infrequent, but rose from 0.2 percent to 0.3 percent over the same time period. Crack cocaine use in the prior month fell from 1.6 percent in 1988 to 1.4 percent in 1989, but the percentage of seniors reporting crack use in the past year was 3.1 percent in 1989, the same as in 1988. Overall, the survey probably underestimates illicit drug use, acknowledges study director Lloyd D. Johnston, because it does not account for high school dropouts. Federal data indicate about 27 percent of U.S. teenagers are dropouts. Alcohol has long been reported as the most commonly consumed drug in the senior survey, and 1989 was no different in that respect. Sixty percent of the seniors said they had used alcohol in the past month, down from a peak of 72 percent in 1980. One-third of the students reported consuming five or more alcoholic drinks in a row sometime during the previous two weeks. Rates of cigarette smoking have not changed substantially over the past decade, with 29 percent of the seniors in 1989 reporting cigarette use in the past month and 19 percent reporting daily cigarette use. This finding is "by far the most disappointing part of the story," Johnston says. |
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