Trends in Initiation of Drug/Alcohol Use

Cocaine

The highest number of initiates of cocaine (including crack) occurred in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when there were approximately 1.0 to 1.5 million new users each year. After falling to recent lows in the early 1990s (e.g., 531,000 in 1991), the total number of new initiates of cocaine rose to 882,000 in 1998. The total increased between 1991 and 1998 both for youths aged 12 to 17 and young adults ages 18 to 25; however, the number increased more for youths than for young adults. In 1991, among youths there were only 92,000 new initiates of cocaine. By 1998, the number of new cocaine initiates among youth had risen to 339,000. This represents a higher rate of increase and a higher absolute increase than for young adults, which rose from an estimated 284,000 new initiates to 444,000 during the same period. Since 1965, the highest annual rate of first use among youth occurred in 1998 (14.5 per 1,000 potential new users), while the rate for young adults in 1998 (17.9 per 1000 potential new users) was only about three-fifths of its highest level (29.0 per 1000 potential new users) attained in 1983.

The estimates of the number of cocaine initiates and age-specific rates for 1999 appear to be generally lower than the corresponding estimates for 1998; however, the differences are not statistically significant.

The average age of cocaine initiates in 1999 was 19.5 years. This is younger than the average age of cocaine initiates for any year since 1973. From 1980 to 1993, the average age of cocaine initiates generally remained above 22 years.

Marijuana
Psychotherapeutics (nonmedical use of pharmaceutical drugs)
Alcohol
Other Substances

Source: SAMHSA 1999 NHSDA.

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"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.