For Immediate Release:
Friday, May 21st, 2004
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Contact: Rafael Lemaitre,
202–395–6618
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CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL SURVEY SHOWS
REDUCTION IN YOUTH DRUG USE
National Youth Risk Behavior Survey Shows 16 Percent
Decline in Teen Marijuana Use
(Washington, D.C.)—John Walters, Director of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), today commented on the Center for Disease Control's 2003 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) which showed a 16 percent decline in current marijuana use among high school students from 1999–2003. The YRBS report measures risky behaviors through school-based surveys of 9th through 12th grade students and is conducted every two years.
Results from the 2003 YRBS showed that, during the 30 days preceding the survey, 22.4 percent of high school students had used marijuana. This is a statistically significant 16 percent decline from 1999, when 26.7 percent reported current marijuana use. These figures reinforce data from December's Monitoring the Future survey which showed a statistically significant 11 percent decline in marijuana and overall drug use among 8th, 10th, and 12th graders over the past two years.
Director Walters said, "The declines we are seeing in youth drug use are encouraging. We know that when parents, communities, and governments work together to push back against the drug problem, it gets smaller. If we are to continue this progress, we must continue our balanced strategy for reducing drug use and encourage communities to consider new, proven ways of preventing our young people from using drugs such as effective, focused anti-drug advertising and random student drug testing."
The Youth Risk Behavior Survey is part of HHS' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, is a school survey that has collected data from students since 1991. The survey includes questions on a wide variety of health-related risk behaviors, not simply drug abuse. More information is available at http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/yrbs/ and www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov
