Teen drug use drops to new lows, survey shows

of what it was at its peak of 9.5 percent in 2004. Among 12th graders, there was a 45 percent drop in the use of opioid pain relievers in 2016 compared to five years ago.

“The one that immediately jumps to mind is Vicodin,” Dr. Volkow said. “It’s actually the lowest it’s ever been. In fact, this year, the prevalence of Vicodin is even lower than OxyContin.”

Cigarette smoking rates among 12th graders in 2016 was 4.8 percent, down significantly from more than 22 percent in 1996. Hookah smoking among 12th graders also fell to 13 percent, down from a peak of almost 23 percent two years ago. Even e-cig use among 12th graders fell to 12.4 percent, compared to 16.2 percent in 2015.

One of the few exceptions was marijuana use among 12th graders, which remained relatively stable from last year, as it related to the yearly, monthly, and regular use. More than 22 percent of high school seniors reported using marijuana in the past month, and six percent reported using it daily. Results also showed that there was higher marijuana use among high school seniors in states where medical marijuana is legal (38.3 percent), compared to states where there weren’t medical marijuana laws (33.3 percent). However, the survey did reveal that only 9.4 percent of eighth graders reported marijuana use in the past year, compared to 11.8 percent last year.

Although the results from the 2016 MTF survey show improvement in the use of illicit drugs by teens, Dr. Volkow drew attention to new synthetic drugs that are increasingly prevalent in the black market, and how interactions between teens, specifically those on social media, can have an impact on the rates of substance use.

“The way that teenagers are communicating has changed dramatically over the past 10, 15 years,” Dr. Volkow said. “We knew… that mirror behaviors of observing other teenagers and the dynamic that exists from peer pressure when you are with other teenagers contributes significantly to the initiation and repeated drug use among teenagers. So the question that comes to mind is could these changes in interaction be playing a role on that decreasing consumption of drugs by teenagers?”