Drug use up for boomers, down for teens

AP via Yahoo ^ | 9/7/2006 | KEVIN FREKING

[Incorrigible]

Drug use up for boomers, down for teens

By KEVIN FREKING,
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Some moms and dads might want to take a lesson from their kids: Just say no. The government reported Thursday that 4.4 percent of baby boomers ages 50 to 59 indicated that they had used illicit drugs in the past month. It marks the third consecutive yearly increase recorded for that age group by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

Meanwhile, illicit drug use among young teens went down for the third consecutive year — from 11.6 percent in 2002 to 9.9 percent in 2005.

"Rarely have we seen a story like this where this is such an obvious contrast as one generation goes off stage right, and entering stage left is a generation that learned a lesson somehow and they're doing something very different," said David Murray, special assistant to the director for the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

The annual survey on drug use and health involves interviews of about 67,500 people. It provides an important snapshot of how many Americans drink, smoke and use drugs such as marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine.

Overall, drug use remained relatively unchanged among Americans age 12 and older in 2005. About 19.7 million Americans reported they had used an illicit drug in the past month, which represented a rise from 7.9 percent to 8.1 percent. The increase was not only due to the boomers, but an increase was also seen among those 18-25, the age category that always ranks highest when it comes to illicit drug use.

Among the 18-25 group, drug use rose from 19.4 percent to 20.1 percent. Federal officials commenting on the report emphasized the drop in use among younger teens without citing the increase in the next older age group.

"The news today is there is a fundamental shift in drug use among young people in America," Assistant Surgeon General Eric B. Broderick said in a statement.

Murray called the 18-25 group the gauntlet through which everybody runs. He said the peak of drug use among youth in the United States occurred in the late 1970s.

"And they brought it with them like baggage when they hit 50 and 60," Murray said.

Drug use by baby boomers increased from 2.7 percent in 2002 to 4.4 percent last year. Marijuana was by far their drug of choice, Murray said.

That's true overall. There were 14.6 million people who reported using marijuana in the past month, about 2.4 million cocaine users and 6.4 million people who used prescription drugs for nonmedical purposes, such as pain relievers, tranquilizers or sedatives. In 60 percent of those cases, the drugs came from a relative or friend for free. Only 4.3 percent reported buying the drug from a drug dealer or other stranger.

While drug use went up slightly in '05, so did alcohol use. Slightly more than half of Americans age 12 and older reported being current drinkers of alcohol. That translates to 126 million people, up from 121 million people the year before.

Officials noted that alcohol use among those 12-17 did decline from 17.6 percent to 16.5 percent.

The percentage of Americans who acknowledged driving drunk at least once in the past year also dropped slightly in 2005 — from 13.5 percent to 13 percent.

Meanwhile, tobacco use held steady at about 29.4 percent, even though among youths 12-17, tobacco use did drop from 14.4 percent to 13.1 percent.

____

On the Net:

Office of National Drug Control Policy: http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/

Not for commercial use.  For educational and discussion purposes only.

[yellowdoghunter]

BTW...I did go to college, now am working on my Masters. And no, I am not just a typist......:)

[Peach]

I do know what 4.4% means, though. It means that a very small percentage of boomers use illicit drugs.

Don't tell the racist one though; she won't have anything else to fall back on. You'll take away her crutch. LOL

[Peach]

LOL. She's the comeback queen, isn't she?

[onyx]

She's not even literate, let alone working on her master's degree. Just another anonymous keyboard fabricator with "issues."

Oh, and HAVE A GREAT DAY!

[ansel12]

Your post meant nothing.

If this is just an angry rant you like to make then so be it, but if the subject interests you then start looking into it.

Look at the things you think boomers did, then start running the dates, do you really think boomers implemented abortion, no fault divorce, the 1965 immigration act, withdrawal from Korea and Vietnam, the allowing of government employees to unionize, the great society, the NEA, the ACLU, NOW, planned parenthood?


Anything you don't like about America, look for its origins and founders and you will be shocked to find out that it started a long time ago, and that the organizations started to fight them are recent creations largely started in the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s.

[MineralMan]

"BTW...I did go to college, now am working on my Masters."

Good for you. Really. Pretty soon you'll be ready to take your place in the adult world and begin contributing to society. That's very good.

[BeHoldAPaleHorse]

I was asking about the The changes were very small--well inside the MoE for opinion polls and the like. Interesting that MoE figures weren't given.

[Peach]

I'll go you one better. I'm having a great life. LOL

[MineralMan]

"Look at the things you think boomers did, then start running the dates, do you really think boomers implemented abortion, no fault divorce, the 1965 immigration act, withdrawal from Korea and Vietnam, the allowing of government employees to unionize, the great society, the NEA, the ACLU, NOW, planned parenthood? "

I know! I know! Call on me!

It was the "Greatest Generation" who did all those things. It was, huh? Amazing, isn't it. All the liberal ideas were implemented...not by the Boomers...who were still in college, studying for their masters, when all that happened. It was the Greatest Generation that did all those things.

How soon they forget. How quickly they assign to the Boomers the things done by the Boomer's parents.

[MineralMan]

"I was asking about the The changes were very small--well inside the MoE for opinion polls and the like. Interesting that MoE figures weren't given."

Yes, the deltas were very small. I was more interested to see the very large gaps in the data by age. That seemed very odd to me. I'm sure the data were collected. They just weren't reported. Very interesting.

[Peach]

That's a good point. The OLDEST baby boomer was 27 when Roe v Wade became law. That was fast work for some boomer to go to SCOTUS and get the entire law of the land changed, wasn't it? LOL

[yellowdoghunter]

I have mentioned several times that I am in school. Read the thread I started about Tony Snow taking the press job and you will note where I had to leave the thread for school work.

I had to leave this thread for a while because I have a life outside FR. I don't mean that to sound harsh but I can't be on FR day and night like many people. I really question how great life can be if you never leave your house?

[BeHoldAPaleHorse]

How quickly they assign to the Boomers the things done by the Boomer's parents.

About the worst that can be said is that the Boomers took the ball at the handoff and ran with it for a while.

On the plus side: it was Boomers, by and large, who implemented the policies that put an end to the Soviet Union (as opposed to continuing "containment"). Reagan had the vision--but the difference between a vision (which can also mean "hallucination") and reality is a bunch of people tending to the details, and those folks were mostly Boomers.

[BeHoldAPaleHorse]

Yeah. Deafening silence about the age ranges and the MoE.

[MineralMan]

Then there was the NEA. Here's some interesting historical information on that organization, from their web site:

---

As early as 1926, NEA and ATA began working together on issues of educational equity, and four decades later, as racial desegregation advanced in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement, ATA and NEA charted a path toward unification to create an even greater organization—the modern National Education Association. That dream was realized when presidents of both organizations signed a historical merger agreement in 1966. 2006 marks the 40th anniversary, and we celebrate our unique and distinct legacies and the strength and richness our combined energies bring to bear on the evolution of public education and the profession of teaching.

---

1966, eh. Let's see....in 1966, I was in the USAF, about to get sent to Turkey. I was just 21 years old. The NEA was founded by...wait for it...the Greatest Generation.

[ansel12]

"...not by the Boomers...who were still in college, studying for their masters"

Remember the first and oldest boomer wouldn't have started his masters course until about 1968, (the youngest boomer was 4 in 1968).

[TKDietz]

This does not mean that older people are picking up drugs, only that those who picked up drugs in the sixties and seventies are getting older. Every year the percentage using drugs in the older age categories goes up, as this first crop of drug users growing up in the sixties and seventies ages. Older people who never messed with drugs are moving to older age brackets and those who were teens back when drug use really started taking off are replacing them are filling the 50-59 age bracket. People 50 to 59 in 2005 were born between 1946 and 1955. Those born in 1955 are much more likely to have used drugs than those born in 1946 because they were in their late teens and early twenties (prime drug taking years) during the late 1970's when drug use peaked in this country. The oldest of the boomers did not use drugs as much as those born after them because drug use didn't really hit mainstream among youth on a wide scale until the latter part of the 70's. It was more a college campus, big city, West Coast thing in the sixties. It spread out to the rest of the country in the seventies peaking in 1979 according to the government surveys. Those born before 1946 were less likely to have ever tried drugs than those born after 1946, and thus are even less likely to use drugs today than those born later.

Anyway, a small percentage of these people who started fooling around with drugs when they were younger never quit. This 2005 survey was the first year that everyone in the 50 to 59 age bracket was born in 1946 or later. The pre boomers are now in higher age brackets, and the higher age brackets are showing increased drug use too. More have tried illicit drugs in their lifetimes, more admit to using in the past year, and more admit using in the past month. We'll see these numbers get higher every single year because those who came of age before drugs became popular are dying off and being replaced by those who came of age when drug use was at its peak in this country.

Here is a link to drug use by detailed age categories numbers from the 2005 survey. You can find previous surveys at SAMHSA's OAS site if you look around: http://oas.samhsa.gov/NSDUH/2k5NSDUH/AppG.htm#TabG-10

[Peach]

hehehe.

So, that Baby Boomer generation which has a 4 point something drug use (lower than later generations by FAR, I'm sure) isn't quite as evil as she'd like us to believe.

I have to wonder just what they're teaching her in school anyway. It sure isn't the facts of life. LOL

[HamiltonJay]

No I'm not, I'm typing on the legacy of the ENIAC. Without it or the IC there wouldn't have been that 65xx to place into that original Apple. Or the original 4004 the very first "micro". The computer age did not begin with Steve Jobs.

That's like a Gen Xer claiming the internet was theirs because it hit the mainstream in the early 90s... its a ludicrous claim.

Technology continues to evolve, and always will.

[TKDietz]

What about all those born after the baby boom years? Adults who were born after 1964 have used drugs just as much as those born from 1946 to 1964.