NCJ Number
201221
Date Published
May 2003
Length
187 pages
Annotation
This 2002 Texas School Survey to determine substance use among students in grades 7-12 involved responses from 149,220 students sampled from 77 school districts.
Abstract
As part of the survey, schools in 12 counties along the Texas-Mexico border were oversampled so that substance use among border students could be examined in detail. The survey found that 53 percent of the students in grades 7-12 used either tobacco, alcohol, inhalants, steroids, or illicit drugs during the past school year, including the past month; 74 percent reported using some type of substance in their lifetime. Overall substance use has declined in the last decade, primarily due to reductions in tobacco and alcohol use. The five substances most widely used by the youth were alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, inhalants, and Ecstasy. Approximately 34 percent of the students reported using an illicit drug at some point in their lives, down from 36 percent in 1998, but still higher than the lowest rate of 22 percent in 1992. Both correction fluid and liquid or spray paint were the most commonly used inhalants; younger students were twice as likely to use these products as older students. Although lifetime use of marijuana remained stable in 2002, secondary students reported a slight increase in past-month use of this drug. The use of Ecstasy increased sharply at all grade levels; approximately 9 percent of secondary students reported lifetime use of Ecstasy in 2002, compared to 5 percent in 2000. Cocaine and/or crack use remained a problem among Texas teens, with 9 percent reporting lifetime use and 3 percent current use. The use of hallucinogens has continued a downward trend since 1998; however, the use of uppers and downers increased significantly among older students. Extensive tables and figures and appended survey instrument and supplementary tables