The most reliable measure of teen drug use is the Monitoring the Future
Study referred to by others on this list.  Lloyd Johnston is the
principal investigator.  The University of Michigan's Survey Research
Center issues periodic news releases which summarize the findings of the
21-year long study.  You can order these releases by phone at (313)763-5043.
 
The findings over the last five years have shown a sharp rise in illegal
drug use, especially marijuana use, even though these increases have yet
to surpass levels measured in the late seventies.  As Johnston points
out, "they are still well below the peak levels attained in the late
1970s.  We are in a relapse phase in the longer-term epidemic, if you
will, but it is certainly not something over which society is powerless.
Our great progress in the past at lowering the rates of illicit drug use
among our young people is proof of that."  He refers to their findings
from between 1979 and 1992 which indicated that the proportion of 12th
graders reporting use of any illicit drug in the previous 12 months fell
by half, from 54 percent to 27 percent.
 
Explanations for the current rise in illegal drug use should therefore
start with the fundamental social and cultural changes of the sixties and
seventies.  Many of the same basic avenues through which people would
become interested in illegal drugs have not changed fundamentally.  The
new generation of young people, however, are putting their own spin on
what dominates in alternative subcultures these days.  As critics of
prohibition point out, much of the incentive comes through the stilted
economic success realized by dealing illegal drugs.  When faced with few
opportunities in the legitimate economy, persons turn to the more
promising underground economy, a prospect enhanced by the affirmation of
cultural heroes like rock stars and their own sense of
self-accomplishment.  These daily examples of defiance of
legally-acceptable standards of conduct reenforce the viability of the
alternative world.
 
Yet, the existence of prohibition alone does not explain current
increases in teen use.  The parent-child relationship of those who used
in the sixties and seventies and those who may be more likely to use now
may be part of the explanation as well.  It may also be that the sheer
size of both generations--the baby boomers and their
children--permitted the formation of more drug subcultures.
 
Drug use is a highly personal, subjective activity.  We were reminded
recently by the past marijuana use of Republican Susan Molinari that
members of both major parties have been involved.
 
Regardless of the explanation, the phenomenon of increased illegal drug
use over the last thirty years arguably stands as one of the most
distinctive features of postindustrial U.S. life.
 
Mike Martin
Temple U., History