Percent of high school seniors reporting they could obtain drugs fairly easily or very easily, 2004:

Between 1992 and 2004 past-month use of marijuana increased from:

• 12% to 20% among high school seniors.
• 8% to 16% among 10th graders.
• 4% to 6% among 8th graders

Of high school seniors in 2004 --

• 45.7% reported having ever used marijuana/hashish
• 8.1% reported having ever used cocaine
• 1.5% reported having ever used heroin.

Nearly one in five (19 percent or 4.5 million) teens has tried prescription medication (pain relievers such as Vicodin and OxyContin; stimulants like Ritalin and Adderall) to get high

One in 10 (10 percent or 2.4 million) teens report abusing cough medicine to get high

Abuse of Rx and OTC medications is on par or higher than the abuse of illegal drugs such as Ecstasy (8 percent), cocaine/crack (10 percent), methamphetamine (8 percent) and heroin (5 percent).

Two in five teens (40 percent or 9.4 million) agree that Rx medicines, even if they are not prescribed by a doctor, are “much safer” to use than illegal drugs;

Nearly one-third of teens (31 percent or 7.3 million) believe there’s “nothing wrong” with using Rx medicines without a prescription “once in a while;”

Nearly three out of 10 teens (29 percent or 6.8 million) believe prescription pain relievers – even if not prescribed by a doctor – are not addictive; and

More than half of teens (55 percent or 13 million) don’t agree strongly that using cough medicines to get high is risky.

Kids who learn a lot about the risks of drugs at home are up to 50 percent less likely to use drugs;

Nine out of 10 parents of teens (92 percent or 22 million) say they have talked to their teen about the dangers of drugs, yet fewer than one third of teens (31 percent or 7.4 million) say they “learn a lot about the risks of drugs” from their parents.

While three out of five parents report discussing drugs like marijuana “a lot” with their children, only a third of parents report discussing the risks of using prescription medicines or non-prescription cold or cough medicine to get high.

Drugs in the Workplace

In 1990, problems resulting from the use of alcohol and other drugs cost American businesses an estimated $81.6 billion in lost productivity due to premature death (37 billion) and illness (44 billion); 86% of these combined costs were attributed to drinking.

Full-time workers age 18-49 who reported current illicit drug use were more likely than those reporting no current illicit drug use to state that they had worked for three or more employers in the past year (32.1% versus 17.9%), taken an unexcused absence from work in the past month (12.1% versus 6.1%), voluntarily left an employer in the past year (25.8 % versus 13.6%), and been fired by an employer in the past year (4.6% versus 1.4%). Similar results were reported for employees who were heavy alcohol users.

According to results of a NIDA-sponsored survey, drug-using employees are 2.2 times more likely to request early dismissal or time off, 2.5 times more likely to have absences of eight days or more, three times more likely to be late for work, 3.6 times more likely to be involved in a workplace accident, and five times more likely to file a workers’ compensation claim.

Results from a U.S. Postal Service study indicate that employees who tested positive on their pre-employment drug test were 77 percent more likely to be discharged within the first three years of employment, and were absent from work 66 percent more often than those who tested negative.

A survey of callers to the national cocaine helpline revealed that 75 percent reported using drugs on the job, 64 percent admitted that drugs adversely affected their job performance, 44 percent sold drugs to other employees, and 18 percent had stolen from co-workers to support their drug habit.

Alcoholism causes 500 million lost workdays each year.

SOURCES: PARTNERSHIP FOR A DRUG FREE AMERICA; DEPARTMENT OF LABOR.