Availability of Illicit Drugs to Girls Ages 12-17

The 1999 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA) asked male and female respondents aged 12 or older to report use of any illicit drug during the past month. "Any illicit drug" refers to the use of marijuana/hashish, cocaine (including crack), inhalants, hallucinogens (including LSD and PCP), heroin, or any prescription-type psychotherapeutic used nonmedically during the 30 days prior to the interview. Respondents were also asked to report how easy it was to obtain illicit drugs. The response categories were: Probably impossible, Very difficult, Fairly difficult, Fairly easy, Very easy.

Females aged 18 to 25 and 26 or older were less likely than their male peers to report use of any illicit drug during the past month. However, females aged 12 to 17 (9 percent) were almost as likely as their male peers (10 percent) to report past month illicit drug use. Black and Hispanic males aged 12 to 17 were more likely than their female counterparts to report use, but rates of use were similar between white males and females in this age group.

Among females aged 12 to 17:

755,000 reported using marijuana and hashish during the past month
83,000 reported using LSD
66,000 reported using cocaine
19,000 reported using heroin
13,000 reported using crack

Females aged 16 or 17 were more likely than females aged 12 to 15 to report using marijuana/hashish, LSD, cocaine, and heroin during the past month. Small sample sizes prevented comparisons of past-month use of illicit drugs across racial/ethnic groups.

Females aged 12 to 17 were more likely than their male peers to report that LSD, cocaine, heroin, and crack were fairly or very easy to obtain and were equally as likely as their male peers to report that marijuana was fairly or very easy to obtain. Females aged 16 or 17 more often reported that illicit drugs were fairly or very easy to obtain than females aged 12 to 15. White females were more likely than females from other racial/ethnic groups to report that LSD was fairly or very easy to obtain. Small sample sizes prevented comparisons of ease of obtaining other illicit drugs across racial/ethnic groups.

Youths who reported illicit drugs were fairly or very easy to obtain were more likely to use drugs. For example, almost 12 percent of youths aged 12 to 17 who reported that marijuana was fairly or very easy to obtain also reported using marijuana/hashish during the past month compared to 1 percent of those reporting that marijuana was difficult to obtain. Approximately 7 percent of those reporting that marijuana was fairly or very easy to obtain also reported using other illicit drugs compared to 2 percent of those reporting that marijuana was difficult to obtain.

Source: SAMHSA 1999 NHSDA.

---

"In the United States, approximately three-fourths of all deaths among persons aged 10--24 years result from only four causes: motor-vehicle crashes, other unintentional injuries, homicide, and suicide. Results from the 1999 national Youth Risk Behavior Survey demonstrate that numerous high school students engage in behaviors that increase their likelihood of death from these four causes...[including alcohol and illicit drug use]" Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), Centers for Disease Control, Risk Youth Behavior Surveillance.