Dear Prevention Colleague,
You are to be congratulated for gaining significant successes in lowering substance abuse rates among Florida’s sixth through twelfth graders. The overwhelmingly downward trends in drug and tobacco use are now into their fourth consecutive year. Alcohol use, while stubbornly high, also shows signs of moving down. Of twenty-one measured drugs, sixteen went down and two stayed even. Only three went up-hallucinogenic mushrooms, GHB, and depressants. Some highlights of the survey’s findings include the following:
· Tobacco down more than 38 percent in three years: Smokeless tobacco has dropped 40 percent since 2000, and cigarette smoking plummeted from 18.4 percent in 2000 to 11.5 percent in 2003.
· Heroin and crack cocaine use is down to one-half percent: Heroin use has decreased 50 percent and is down to less than one-half of one percent, and crack cocaine use is down to 0.6 percent. LSD and PCP past 30-day use is approximately half of what it was three years ago, a 47 percent decrease to be exact.
· Alcohol use decreased by 10 percent: Alcohol remains the most common substance of abuse for children. For 6th through 12th graders, current use rates are 30.9 percent, a decrease of 10 percent from 34.3 percent use in 2000.
· Ecstasy use down 46 percent from two years ago: Ecstasy, which showed signs of alarming spread by the end of the 1990’s, has been nearly cut in half since 2001 – the first year it was measured – and is currently at 1.5 percent past 30-day use.
· Marijuana use down: Marijuana use by middle school students dropped 30 percent since 2000. However, high school use rose slightly last year. Overall, youth marijuana use is down 9% since 2000. At 12.8% overall use, marijuana is the most widespread drug of use.
· Prescription drug use: Illegal use of prescription drugs has not spread as widely among children as it has among adults. OxyContin use, for example, has been at 0.8 percent for the past two years, and 3.2 percent of surveyed youth reported illicit use of other painkillers in the past 30 days.
Not only are drug use rates going down (many of them well below 1% as a “current use” phenomenon), Florida’s trend lines are consistently more positive than the nation’s. There can be no question at this point that your efforts have been paying off, debunking the oft-repeated myth that, in the areas of drug-control, “nothing works” and efforts to bring down drug abuse should be “given up.” I appreciate all that you have done to demonstrate that most children do not want to use drugs, and that given support, they won’t.
I pledge to you that we in state government will coordinate our efforts to integrate yours, as well as to ease your path to additional resources, public attention, and other means of support. I ask that you continue to measure the results of your efforts, to make assessments, as appropriate, of what works and what does not, and to join together with others in your community to achieve the greatest results.
We are well on our way to achieving our overall goals. I encourage you to inform me of what else we can do to continue our successes. Thank you for your worthwhile efforts. For more information on the 2003 Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey results, please go to www.myflorida.com/drugcontrol.
Sincerely,
James R. McDonough
Director
Florida Office of Drug Control