Usage of Prescription Drug Medications among Youth
In 2008, 4.7 million teens nationwide reported they had abused a prescription drug at some time in their lives.7 The nonmedical use of prescription drug medications among youth in California follows these national trends.
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National and California-specific studies have found that:
- Among youths aged 12 to 17, the types of drugs used in the past month varied by age group. Among 12 or 13 year olds, 1.4% used prescription-type drugs non-medically, 1.1% used inhalants, and 0.9% used marijuana. Among 14 or 15 year olds, marijuana was the most commonly used drug (5.7%), followed by prescription-type drugs used non-medically (3.4%), and then inhalants (1.4%). Marijuana also was the most commonly used drug among 16 or 17 year olds (13.1%), followed by prescription-type drugs used non-medically (4.9%), and then hallucinogens (1.2%), inhalants (1.0%), and cocaine (0.9%).8
- In 2007, 6.58 percent of 12-17 year olds reported use of nonmedical pain relievers in the past year in California.9
- Lifetime use rates for prescription pain killers (e.g., Vicodin®, OxyContin® and Percodan®) went from 9% for 9th graders in the 2005‐06 school year to 11.6% in 2007‐08. For 11th graders, painkiller misuse went from 15% in 2005‐06 to 17.6% in 2007‐08. This is an alarming pattern of increasing nonmedical use of prescription drugs by adolescents in California.10
- Teen girls (12 - 17) are more likely than teen boys to have engaged in the nonmedical use of prescription drugs (3.0 and 3.5% for males and females).11
- The use of amphetamines and sedatives (barbiturates) among youth is declining.12
- In 2008, prescription drug abuse among teens was an additive, not a replacement behavior. Abusers of prescription drugs were more likely to have tried marijuana, than to be non-triers of marijuana.13
Dr. Nora Volkow, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), explains how the legitimately prescribed drug Ritalin® (methylphenidate), when abused, can act in the same way as cocaine:14
“For example, the stimulant methylphenidate (Ritalin®) has much in common with cocaine: they bind to similar sites in the brain, and they both increase the brain chemical dopamine through the same molecular targets. And when both drugs are administered intravenously, they cause a rapid and large increase in dopamine, which a person experiences as a rush or high. However, when methylphenidate is taken orally, as prescribed, it elicits a gradual and sustained increase in dopamine, which is not perceived as euphoria and instead produces the expected therapeutic effects seen in many patients.”
Source: Testimony before the House Government Reform Committee, July 26, 2006
Go to the MTF National Survey results on drug use in secondary school aged youth, Volume 1, 1975-200815 for a complete copy of survey results.
Go to the Partnership Attitude Tracking Study (PATS) Teens 2008 Report for a complete copy of key findings.
Go to the California Student Survey report for more information on California youth use rates.
8 Results from the 2007 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. NSDUH: National Findings. Available at: http://www.oas.samhsa.gov/nsduh/2k7nsduh/2k7Results.pdf. Accessed Aug 31, 2009
9 Results from the 2007 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. NSDUH: National Findings. Available at: http://www.oas.samhsa.gov/nsduh/2k7nsduh/2k7Results.pdf. Accessed Aug 31, 2009
10 Austin, G. and Skager, R.; WestEd, Current Substance Use among California Secondary Students, Results of the 2007-2008 12th Biennial California Student Survey on Drugs, Alcohol and Tobacco, presented to California’s Governor’s Prevention Advisory Council on January 23, 2009. Available at: http://www.adp.cahwnet.gov/Prevention/gpac.shtml. Accessed Sept. 5, 2009.
11 Results from the 2007 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. NSDUH: National Findings. Available at: http://www.oas.samhsa.gov/nsduh/2k7nsduh/2k7Results.pdf. Accessed Aug 31, 2009
12 Johnston, L. D., O’Malley, P. M., Bachman, J. G., & Schulenberg, J. E. (2009). Monitoring the Future national results on adolescent drug use: Overview of key findings, 2008 (NIH Publication No. 09-7401). Bethesda, MD: National Institute on Drug Abuse.
13 The Partnership Attitude Tracking Study Teens 2008 Report (PATS 2008), Partnership for a Drug-Free America’s 20th annual study, February 26, 2009, http://www.drugfree.org/Files/full_report_teens_2008
14 Prescription for Disaster: How Teens Abuse Medicine. (Dec 2008). DEA: Get Smart About Drugs. Available at: http://www.getsmartaboutdrugs.com/Files/File/DEApillbook_1_5_08.pdf. Accessed Sept. 2, 2009.
15 Johnston, L. D., O’Malley, P. M., Bachman, J. G., & Schulenberg, J. E. (2009). Monitoring the Future national survey results on drug use, 1975–2008: Volume I, Secondary school students (NIH Publication No. 09-7402). Bethesda, MD: National Institute on Drug Abuse http://monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/monographs/vol1_2008.pdf