Results from the 2010 Dayton Area Drug Survey (DADS) suggest the long-running trend of declining drug use by teens may be ending.
The percentage of twelfth grade students who reported ever having been drunk on alcohol rose from 54.3 percent in 2008 to 55.2 percent in 2010, with similar increases for seventh and ninth graders. For the first time in many years, the percentage of teens reporting experience with cigarettes and smokeless tobacco also increased, as did the percentage reporting marijuana use.
While the increases were generally small, they may be a harbinger of an upward swing in youthful drug use. The findings follow the 2008 DADS results, which suggested the earlier declines in drug use among high school seniors may have stalled. The Dayton area appears to be following a national trend. Several recent national surveys also suggest the decline has leveled out and may be tilting upwards, at least for some drugs.
Conducted every two years, DADS is a cross-sectional study that provides estimates of teen drug use in the Dayton region. First administered in 1990, DADS is collaboration between the Center for Interventions, Treatment and Addictions Research (CITAR) at the Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine and area school districts. In spring 2010, 16,307 students from 15 Dayton-area school districts volunteered to participate in the anonymous survey. The majority of the sample was white (about 82 percent), suburban and nearly evenly split between boys and girls. Read more.
See 2010 data tables (html and pdf).
