Substance abuse by adolescents in the United States reaches an alarming rate with approximately 881,684 teenagers smoking cigarettes on an average day, according to a U.S. report.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) released a report Thursday, which revealed an alarming rate of substance abuse among American adolescents. According to the report, on an average day approximately 881,684 teenagers smoked cigarettes, 46,707 adolescents smoked marijuana and 457,672 drank alcohol.
"This data about adolescents sheds new light on how deeply substance use pervades the lives of many young people and their families," said SAMHSA Administrator Pamela S. Hyde in a press release. "While other studies indicate that significant progress has been made in lowering the levels of some forms of substance use among adolescents in the past decade, this report shows that far too many young people are still at risk."
The report also revealed statistics about first time substance abuse among teenagers aged 12 to 17. At this age, substance use is not allowed, making it illegal. The report stated a total of 7,639 adolescents in this age group drank alcohol for the first time, 4,594 used an illicit drug for the first time, 4,000 adolescents used marijuana for the first time, 3,701 smoked cigarettes for the first time and 2,151 misused prescription pain relievers for the first time.
Researchers also deduced the number of adolescents in the same age group that received treatment for a substance abuse problem during an average day. They found that over 71,000 of them received outpatient treatment, 9,302 received non-hospital residential treatment and over 1,258 received hospital inpatient treatment.
Marijuana usage resulted in 165 emergency visits among teenagers of the 12-17 age group, alcohol resulted in 187 such visits and misuse of prescription or non-prescription pain relievers in 74 visits.
Some of the most commonly abused prescription drugs include pain killers, with over 5.1 million people taking them non-medically in 2010. According to the National Information Center for Pain Medication Addiction, over 40 million painkiller prescriptions were given in 1991. That number jumped to over 200 million in 2009.
Substance abuse continues to remain one of the major public health problems among American youths, causing injuries and HIV infections among other diseases. In a previous L.A Times report, CDC revealed that the deaths from drug overdose and abuse now exceed that from motor vehicle accidents in the U.S.
