v TOBACCO, ALCOHOL, AND ILLEGAL DRUG USE v  

The next section of the survey dealt with tobacco, alcohol, and illegal drug use.  Specifically, students were asked about cigarette smoking, method of obtaining tobacco, and other tobacco use; alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, inhalant, heroin, methamphetamine, steroid, and intravenous drug use; as well as the use of illegal drugs on school property.

 Healthy Maine Year 2000 Goal

·          Reduce death and disability related to alcohol, drug, and tobacco use through change in the social and cultural climate.

Healthy Maine Year 2000 Objectives

·          Reduce the proportion of high school seniors and college students engaging in recent occasions of heavy alcohol drinking (five or more drinks on at least one occasion) by 5%.

·          Reduce, by 10%, the number of adolescents ages 12 - 17 reporting first use of cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana.

·          Reduce the proportion of young people who have used alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine in the past month as follows:

Behavior	Baseline 1989	Most recent data (1997)	Year 2000 target
Cocaine use to be reduced by 50%	3.0%	3.0%	1.5%
Marijuana use to be reduced by 25%	18%	30%	13%
Alcohol use to be reduced by 25%	63%	52%	47%

  ·          Reduce weekly smokeless tobacco use, which can lead to significant oral problems including cancer, to a prevalence rate of no more than 5% among boys ages 12 - 18.  

CIGARETTE SMOKING

ü                  Nearly seven in ten middle school students (68%) have never smoked an entire cigarette.  Male middle school students and female middle school students are equally likely to have never smoked a whole cigarette.

ü                  The majority of middle school students (86%) reported that they have never smoked regularly (at least one cigarette every day for 30 days).   Older middle school students are more likely than younger middle school students to have smoked cigarettes regularly (18% [14 years or older] versus 8% [12 years or younger]).

ü                  Meanwhile, four in ten high school students (42%) reported that they have never smoked a whole cigarette.  Female high school students (44%) are slightly more likely than male high school students (39%) to have never smoked an entire cigarette.

ü                  The majority of both middle school students (85%) and high school students (69%) did not smoke in the 30 days preceding the survey. 

ü                  Students in the higher grades are more likely than those in the lower grades to have smoked in the past 30 days.  Approximately one in ten 7^th grade students (12%) smoked in the past 30 days, compared with more than three in ten 12^th grade students (34%) who did the same.  

ü                  While 8% of middle school students reported smoking two or more cigarettes per day on the days that they smoked in the 30 days preceding the survey, 22% of high school students reported doing the same. 

ü                  Similar to the results of smoking frequency, the amount of cigarettes smoked per day also increases with age.  Specifically, only 6% of 7^th grade students smoked two or more cigarettes per day on the days they smoked in the past 30 days, while 24% of 12^th grade students did the same.

ü                  One-third of high school students (31%) reported that they have tried to quit smoking cigarettes.  Female high school students (32%) are only slightly more likely than male high school students (29%) to have  tried to quit smoking cigarettes.

ü                  The majority of high school students (89%) did not smoke cigarettes on school property in the 30 days preceding the survey.  The remaining 11% of high school students smoked cigarettes on school property on one or more of the 30 days preceding the survey.  

ü                  Male high school students (12%) were only slightly more likely than female students attending high school (9%) to have smoked cigarettes on school property at least once in the 30 days preceding the survey.

METHOD OF OBTAINING TOBACCO

ü                  Middle school students who smoked cigarettes in the 30 days preceding the survey usually obtained the cigarettes by borrowing them (27%), stealing them (22%), having someone else buy them (21%), or getting them some other way (23%).

ü                  High school students who smoked cigarettes in the 30 days preceding the survey usually obtained the cigarettes by borrowing them (30%), having someone else buy them (28%), buying them at a store (22%), or getting them some other way (13%).  

 ü                  Of the 61 middle school students who purchased cigarettes in a store in the 30 days preceding the survey, only 12 (20%) indicated that they were asked to show proof of age.  (Please note that since less than 100 middle school students responded to this question, care should be taken in interpreting the results.)

 ü                  However, of the 157 high school students who purchased cigarettes in a store in the 30 days preceding the survey, 98 (62%) reported that they were asked to show proof of age.  The remaining 38% of high school students who purchased cigarettes in a store in the 30 days prior to the survey were never required to show proof of age.  

OTHER TOBACCO USE

 ü                  The vast majority of middle school students (94%) and high school students (94%) did not use chewing tobacco or snuff in the 30 days preceding the survey. 

 ü                  Male middle and high school students (8%) were more likely than female middle and high school students (3%) to have used chewing tobacco or snuff in the 30 days preceding the survey.

ü                  Only 3% of high school students reported having used chewing tobacco or snuff while on school property in the 30 days preceding the survey.

ü                  Middle school students (93%) were more likely than high school students (85%) to report that they did not smoke cigars, cigarillos, or little cigars in the 30 days preceding the survey. 

ü                  Male middle school students (11%) were more likely than female middle school students (4%) to have smoked cigars, cigarillos, or little cigars in the 30 days preceding the survey.  Similarly, male high school students (24%) were more likely than female high school students (7%) to have smoked cigars, cigarillos, or little cigars in the 30 days preceding the survey.  These gender differences are greater than those found with cigarette smoking.

ü                  In addition, students in the 12^th grade were the most likely to have smoked cigars, cigarellos, or little cigars  in the 30 days preceding the survey (21% versus 10% [9^th grade]).

 

 ALCOHOL USE

 ü                  Approximately one-half of middle school students (54%) and one-fourth of high school students (24%) have never consumed alcohol.  (Please note that some of these respondents might have had a few sips of alcohol.)

 ü                  Students in the 8^th grade (56%) are significantly more likely than students in the 7^th grade (38%) to have had a drink of alcohol.  In addition, male middle school students (49%) are somewhat more likely than female middle school students (44%) to have had a drink of alcohol, other than a few sips.

 ü                  Seventeen percent of middle school students (17%) had their first drink of alcohol before age 11.  Male middle school students (20%) were more likely than female middle school students (13%) to report that they had their first drink of alcohol, other than a few sips, before age 11.

 ü                  Thirty percent of high school students (30%) had their first drink of alcohol before the age of 13.  Male high school students (38%) were more likely than female high school students (23%) to have had their first drink of alcohol before age 13.

  ü                  More than one-half of high school students (52%) had at least one drink of alcohol in the 30 days prior to taking the survey. 

 ü                  Two-thirds of 12^th grade students (65%) had at least one drink of alcohol in the 30 days preceding the survey, versus 48% of 9^th grade students.  

ü                  Approximately one in three high school students (35%) had five or more drinks of alcohol in a row (that is, within a couple of hours) at least once in the 30 days preceding the survey. 

 ü                  Almost one-half of students in the 12^th grade (48%) had five or more drinks of alcohol in a row in the 30 days preceding the survey, compared with approximately one in four 9^th grade students (28%).  Older male high school students are the most likely to have had at least five drinks in a row on at least one occasion in the 30 days preceding the survey.

ü                  The majority of high school students (94%) did not consume alcohol on school property in the 30 days preceding the survey.  The remaining 6% of high school students, however, reported that they had at least one drink of alcohol on school property in the 30 days preceding the survey.

ü                  Male high school students (10%) were more likely than female high school students (3%) to have consumed alcohol on school property in the 30 days prior to taking the survey.   

MARIJUANA USE

 ü                  The majority of middle school students (82%) have never used marijuana. 

 ü                  Almost one in four 8^th grade students (24%) have used marijuana, versus a little more than one in ten 7^th grade students (13%).  In addition, male middle school students (21%) are more likely than female middle school students (15%) to have used marijuana.

ü                  Compared with the 82% of middle school students who have never used marijuana, one-half of high school students (52%) have never tried marijuana. 

ü                  Of those who have used marijuana, the most common ages for middle school students to have first tried marijuana are 13 years (29%) and 12 years (25%) of age.  For high school students, the most common ages to have first tried marijuana are 13 or 14 years of age (40%), followed by 15 or 16 years of age (29%).

ü                  Thirteen percent of all high school students (13%) tried marijuana before the age of 13.  Male high school students (18%) were more likely than female high school students (9%) to have tried marijuana before the age of 13.

 ü                  One in three high school students (31%) reported that they used marijuana at least once in the 30 days preceding the survey.

 ü                  Male high school students (36%) were more likely than female high school students (26%) to have used marijuana on one or more occasions in the 30 days prior to taking the survey.  In addition, older high school students were more likely to have used marijuana at least once in the 30 days preceding the survey (34% [18 years or older] versus 26% [15 years or younger]).  

ü                  The majority of high school students (91%) did not use marijuana on school property in the 30 days preceding the survey.  The remaining 9% of high school students, however, indicated that they used marijuana on school property one or more times in the 30 days preceding the survey.

 ü                  Male high school students (12%) were two times more likely than female high school students (6%) to have used marijuana on school property at least once in the 30 days preceding the survey.  

COCAINE USE

ü                  The majority of middle school students (92%) have never used any form of cocaine, including powder, crack, or freebase.  Nearly one in ten middle school students (8%), however, have used cocaine.  

ü                  Like the middle school results, 92% of high school students reported that they have never used cocaine, including powder, crack, or freebase.

 ü                  Only 4% of high school students used any form of cocaine in the 30 days preceding the survey.  Male high school students (5%) were slightly more likely than female high school students (2%) to have used cocaine during the 30 days preceding the survey.

INHALANT USE

ü                  The majority of middle school students (83%) have never used inhalants, such as sniffing glue, breathing the contents of spray cans, or inhaling any paints or sprays to get high.  Seventeen percent of middle school students (17%), however, have used inhalants in their lifetime.

 ü                  One in five middle school students 14 years of age or older (20%)  have used inhalants, compared with approximately one in ten middle school students who are 12 years old (13%).    

 ü                  Sixteen percent of high school students (16%) have used inhalants, such as sniffing glue, breathing the contents of aerosol spray cans, or inhaling any paints or sprays to get high.

 ü                  Younger high school students are more likely to indicate that they have used inhalants in their lifetime (18% [15 years or younger] versus 12% [18 years or older]).

 ü                  Only 6% of high school students sniffed glue, breathed the contents of aerosol spray cans, or inhaled any paints or sprays to get high one or more times in the 30 days preceding the survey. 

 ü                  Male high school students (8%) were two times as likely as female students who attend high school (4%) to have used inhalants to get high in the 30 days preceding the survey.

 HEROIN USE

 ü                  Nearly all high school students surveyed (96%) indicated that they have never used heroin in their lifetime.  Only 4% of high school students reported having used heroin at least one time in their life.

 ü                  Male high school students (6%) are more likely than female high school students (2%) to have used heroin in their lifetime.

 (Please note that middle school students were not asked about heroin use.)

 METHAMPHETAMINE USE

 ü                  One in ten high school students (10%) have used methamphetamines in their life.  Male high school students (12%) are slightly more likely than female high school students (8%) to have used methampethamines.

 (Please note that middle school students were not asked about methamphetamine use.)   

 STEROID USE

 ü                  The majority of middle school students (94%) have never used steroids.  The remaining 6% of middle school students indicated that they have used steroids in their lifetime.

 ü                  Male middle school students (8%) are more likely than female students (3%) to have used steroids.  

ü                  As in the results of the middle school sample, only 6% of high school students reported having taken steroid pills or shots without a doctor’s prescription.

ü                  Male high school students (8%) are two times more likely than female high school students (4%) to have used steroids.