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• Alcohol, the most commonly used drug among young people kills 6½ times more youth than all other illicit drugs combined.
  
  
• 65% of the youth who drink alcohol report that they get the alcohol they drink from family and friends.
  
  
• Underage drinking costs the Texas economy more than $5.5 billion a year – enough to buy every public school student a state-of-the-art computer.

 

The Texas School Survey of Substance Use examines alcohol and drug usage among in-school students, as well as student attitudes, extracurricular involvement, and other behaviors. The Dept. of State Health Services through the former Texas Commission on Alcohol & Drug Abuse conducts this survey every two years in conjunction with the Texas A&M University Public Policy Research Institute.

   This year’s survey showed extensive decreases in the use of tobacco, alcohol, and a number of illicit drugs.

Elementary School Survey

In the spring of 2004, the Department of State Health Services, through the former Texas Commission on Alcohol & Drug Abuse, surveyed 79,454 students in grades 4–6 from 69 Texas school districts. Among the findings:

• In 2004, 16% of students reported they had used alcohol in the past year. While alcohol use among this age group remained relatively steady since 2002, it has shown a continual decline throughout the past fourteen years.
  
  
• The 2004, 1.7% of students said they had used marijuana in the past year, the same as in 2002. Marijuana use among this age group has fallen 37% since its peak rate in 1996.
  
  
• The percentage of students who said they had used inhalants in the past year rose 17% from 2002 to 2004. Lifetime use of inhalants showed a 13% increase from 2002.
  

 

Secondary School Survey

In the spring of 2004, the Department of State Health Services surveyed 135,662 students in grades 7–12 from 78 Texas school districts. Among the findings:

ALCOHOL USE

• Alcohol continues to be the most widely used substance among Texas students with 68% of students reporting they had used alcohol at some point in their lives. This percentage has dropped 4% since 2002, and the past month use has dropped 6%.
  

• In 2004, girls (69%) reported a higher rate of lifetime alcohol use than boys (67%).
  
  
• About 10% of students said they had attended class while drunk at least once during the past school year.
  
  
• Binge drinking, defined as having five or more drinks on one occasion, was reported by 23% of students.
  
  
• 24% of seniors said they had driven a car after having a good bit to drink at least once during the past year. This represents 80,000 impaired drivers on Texas roads each year.
  
  
• Among seventh graders, 73% reported that their parents strongly disapproved of underage drinking; however, the rate fell to 51% among seniors.
  
  
• Only 19% of students who said their parents disapproved of teen alcohol use reported past-month drinking, compared to 50% of their peers who reported their parents approved of teen alcohol use.
  
  
• The percentage of past-month alcohol users who reported they always or most of the time got alcohol from stores has decreased 45% since 1994.
  
  
  

MARIJUANA USE

• Marijuana remained the most commonly used illicit drug among students. 30% of all 7–12 graders in 2004 reported having smoked marijuana at some point in their lives, down from 32% in 2002. Past-month use of marijuana was 12.6% in 2004, compared to 14.4% in 2002.
  
  
• 50.4% of students in 2004 reported that at least a few of their close friends used marijuana, down from 53.5% in 2002.
  
  
• More young people perceived marijuana as a very dangerous drug, which may be partially attributed to the decrease in prevalence use of marijuana. In 2004, 61% of students thought marijuana was very dangerous to use, compared to 58% in 2002.
  
  
• The trends in perceived availability of marijuana decreased during the past two years. 44% of secondary students in 2004 thought that marijuana was very or somewhat easy to obtain, compared to 47% in 2002.
  
  
  

TOBACCO USE

• The percentage of students reporting they had used tobacco in the month before the survey fell again, from 18.2% in 2002 to 17% in 2004. Seventh graders reported a 21% decline, and ninth graders reported an 18% drop.
  
  
• Lifetime use of tobacco fell 12% between 2002 and 2004 to 39.4%. The biggest decline was seen among ninth graders who reported they had tried tobacco at some point in their lives fell 20% from 2002 to 2004.
  
  
• In 2004, 5% of seniors reported smoking more than a half a pack of cigarettes per day in the month before the survey, the same as in 2002 but lower than 7% in 2000.
  
  
  

ECSTASY USE

• Students at all grade levels have been showing a sharp decrease in Ecstasy use in the past two years.
  
  
• The percentage of students reporting use of Ecstasy in the month before the survey dropped from 3.1% in 2002 to 1.8% in 2004. The broad decrease of this club drug was more radical among younger students. Among ninth graders, the past-month use of Ecstasy fell 58%; and among seventh graders, it decreased 50%.
  
  
• Lifetime use of Ecstasy decreased sharply from 8.6% in 2002 to 5.5% in 2004. Again, the greatest decreases were seen among younger students. Seventh graders reported a half usage of Ecstasy from 3.6% in 2002 to 1.8% in 2004.
  
  
• There is a dramatic decrease in the perceived availability of Ecstasy. 21% of students in 2004 said that Ecstasy was very or somewhat easy to obtain, compared to 26% of students in 2002.
  
  
• The increased trend in students’ perceived danger of using Ecstasy may partly contribute to the significant decrease in their Ecstasy use. In 2004, 83% of students thought Ecstasy was very dangerous to use, compared to 79% in 2002.
  
  
  

OTHER TRENDS

• The percentage of 7–12 graders reporting they had ever used any illicit drug decreased from 34% in 2002 to 32% in 2004.
  
  
• Inhalant abuse declined for lifetime use but remained stable for past-month use. The overall rate for lifetime use in 2004 was 17% and the past month use was 7%. Like elementary students, both seventh and eighth graders showed an increase in inhalant use during the past two years.
  
  
• Cocaine and crack use remained a problem among Texas students. In 2004, 7.9% of secondary students reported they had tried cocaine or crack, and 3.2% reported using these substances in the month before the survey. While younger students reported a decrease in past-month use of cocaine and crack since 2002, eleventh and twelfth graders reported an increased rate.
  
  
• Use of prescription-type drugs was added to the 2004 school survey. 4.3% of secondary students said that they had ever taken DXM, Triple C’s, Skittles, or Coricidin to get high, and 1.5% reported using these drugs in the month before the survey. Also, 8.3% reported using codeine cough syrup to get high at some point in their lives, and 3.3% did so in the past month.
  
  
• Lifetime use of uppers or downers fell 17 to 18% between 2002 and 2004, and past-month use fell 24%. The greatest decreases were seen among ninth graders.
  
  
• Rohypnol use also showed notable decreases. There was a 38% decrease in lifetime use for ninth graders, to 4.0% in 2004 from 6.5% in 2002.