Ann Arbor, MI: Adolescents’ consumption of alcohol and tobacco fell to historic lows while self-reported annual use of cannabis held steady, according to survey data released Wednesday by the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. The University’s ‘Monitoring the Future’ study has been sampling adolescents’ consumption of various licit and illicit substances since the mid-1970s.
Use of both alcohol and tobacco among all grades surveyed has fallen consistently since the mid-1990s. Self-reported annual use of marijuana held relatively stable from 2011 to 2012, after having increased among all grade levels each year since 2007. Reported marijuana use levels for 2012 mimic levels previously reported in the late 1990s.
Teens’ perceptions of cannabis’ risk potential continued to dip, continuing a trend that first began in the early 1990s. Approximately 8 out of 10 12th graders surveyed said that marijuana was "fairly easy" or "very easy" to obtain, a percentage that has remained largely unchanged since 2009.
For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director, at: paul@norml.org. Full text of the Monitoring the Future study is available online at: http://www.monitoringthefuture.org//pressreleases/13drugpr_complete.pdf.