Written by the Join Together Staff :: June 6, 2012 :: drugfree.org/join-together
Surveys of American and European teenagers have found dramatic
differences between the two groups’ substance use. While American teens
smoke and drink less than their European peers, they are more likely to
use illegal drugs.
The results come from coordinated school surveys
about substance use that include more than 100,000 students around
Europe. They are largely modeled on the University of Michigan’s Monitoring the Future survey in the United States, making comparisons possible between the American and European results.
The United States had the second lowest proportion of students who
used alcohol and tobacco, compared with teens in 36 European countries, HealthCanal
reports. Among American students, 27 percent drank alcohol in the month
before the survey. The average rate in Europe was 57 percent. Twelve
percent of American students smoked cigarettes in the month before the
survey, compared with an average of 28 percent in Europe.
Eighteen percent of American teens reported using marijuana or
hashish in the previous month, compared with an average of 7 percent
among European teens. American teens reported the highest level of
marijuana availability. The U.S. had the lowest proportion of teens who
associated use of marijuana with great risk, according to Lloyd
Johnston, the principal investigator of the American surveys.
American teens were more likely than European students to have tried
any illicit drugs other than marijuana, including hallucinogens, Ecstasy
“Clearly the U.S. has attained relatively low rates of use for
cigarettes and alcohol, though not as low as we would like,” Johnston
said in a news release. “But the level of illicit drug use by adolescents is still exceptional here.”