Indicator: 10 - Youth Illicit Drug Use

Why This Is Important

Alcohol use by adolescents is linked to a host of physical and social problems, including motor vehicle crime and fatalities. Early onset of use decreases potential economic productivity as an adult and results in a disproportionate share of health care services for those affected. Use of drugs is a preventable behavior that, when established in youth, may develop into chronic drug dependency and severe illness. Cigarette smoking is the single most preventable cause of death in the United States. Marijuana use has both health and cognitive risks, and it is one of the most abused illicit drugs.

Where We Stand

According to the 2001 Maine Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), about 48% of high school aged youth had at least one alcoholic drink on one or more of the past 30 days (down slightly from previous surveys), 25% reported smoking cigarettes at least once in the past 30 days (also down from previous surveys), and 27% said that they used marijuana one or more times in the past 30 days (also down slightly). In general, older teens were more likely to report these behaviors than younger ones. Females were slightly more likely than males to have used cigarettes (27% versus 23%) and alcohol (50% versus 46%), and boys were slightly more likely to report marijuana use (30% versus 24%).

Data Sources and Context

This information comes from the Maine Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), Maine Department of Education. The data source is the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System maintained by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Data from the Maine YRBS is available on-line at http://www.mainecshp.com/survey.html. National YRBS figures can be found at http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/yrbs/index.htm.

*Important Note: YRBS data is gathered every two years using a questionnaire administered to a sample of students in Maine and nationally. When the Maine YRBS survey has an overall response rate of 60% or higher, the CDC statistically weights the results so that the numbers can be generalized to all public school students in the state in grades 9-12. When the overall response rate is below 60%, the CDC does not perform such statistically weighting, and the data apply only to the students who actually filled out the questionnaires. Maine's YRBS data for 1993 and 1999 was unweighted, so information for those years cannot be compared reliably with data from 1995, 1997 and 2001.