New Jersey Reports on Substance Abuse
The New Jersey Department of Law & Public Safety's 150-page
report, "Drug and Alcohol Use Among New Jersey High School Students
-; 1996," includes statistics on 11 substances, ranging from
alcohol and marijuana to glue and cough medicine. It states: "The
proportion of students who report having used alcohol, marijuana,
hallucinogens, heroin and glue sometime in their lives has increased
significantly since 1992." Use of other drugs has remained stable or
declined.
Administered in the fall of 1995 to 2,000 10th, 11th and 12th
graders, the survey found:
- 78.8 percent used alcohol at sometime in their lives.
- 35 percent reported drinking on 10 or more occasions during
the previous year, compared with 32.8 percent in 1992.
- 51 percent used substances other than alcohol at sometime in
their lives, and about one in three of those used only marijuana.
- Marijuana is clearly the most used illicit drug, with 42.1
percent reporting use at sometime in their lives, 36.9 percent in
the previous year and 22.3 percent in the past month.
- 34.8 percent used substances other than marijuana or alcohol
at some time in their lives.
- 15.6 percent said they used hallucinogens sometime in their
lives, 9.6 percent amphetamines and 8 percent cocaine.
- 60.2 percent said they do not smoke cigarettes at all. Of the
39.8 percent who do, more than half smoke occasionally, while 18
percent smoke daily.
A separate survey, "The New Jersey Middle School Survey on
Substance Abuse," was conducted by the Partnership for a Drug Free
New Jersey. Researchers sampled students from private, parochial and
public schools in May-June, 1995. The study, the first of its kind
among this age group in the Garden State, found:
- 57 percent of seventh and eighth graders had used alcohol,
almost half used it in the previous year, and 30 percent within
the previous month.
- 40 percent used cigarettes in their lifetime, 33 percent have
smoked in the previous year, and 20 percent in the previous month.
- The mean age of first use of alcohol in New Jersey is between
10 and 11, while the first use of cigarettes is between 11 and 12.
- Those who have a strong attachment to home and school reported
a lower amount of substance use.
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