Monitoring the Future (MTF) Survey
Each year, the Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey assesses the extent of drug use among 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-graders nationwide. Nonmedical use of any prescription drug is reported only for 12th-graders, and in 2008, 15.4 percent reported past-year use. Prescription and OTC medications were the most commonly abused drugs by high school students after marijuana. In addition, they represent 6 of the top 10 illicit drugs reported by 12th-graders.
Prescription Painkillers.
In 2002, MTF added questions to the survey about past-year nonmedical use of Vicodin and OxyContin. For Vicodin, past-year nonmedical use has remained stable at high levels for each grade since its inclusion in the survey.
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CNS Depressants
Nonmedical use of tranquilizers (benzodiazepines and others) by 10th-grade students decreased between 2001 and 2008 for all prevalence periods (lifetime,3 past-year, and past-month use). Use of sedatives (barbiturates), for which data are collected only from 12th-graders, has remained steady.
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Stimulants
Nonmedical use of stimulants is broken up by the type of stimulant used: amphetamines, methamphetamine, or Ritalin. For all three stimulants surveyed, rates have decreased significantly among 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-graders in 2001–2008.
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Cough Medicine
In 2006, a question about the use of cough and cold medicines to get high was asked for the first time.
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National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH)
According to the 2007 NSDUH, an estimated 6.9 million persons, or 2.8 percent of the population, aged 12 or older had used prescription psychotherapeutic medications nonmedically in the month prior to being surveyed. This includes 5.2 million using pain relievers (an increase from 4.7 million in 2005), 1.8 million using tranquilizers, 1.1 million using stimulants, and 350,000 using sedatives.
Past-month nonmedical use of prescription-type drugs among young adults aged 18 to 25 increased from 5.5 percent in 2002 to 6 percent in 2007. This was primarily due to an increase in pain reliever use, which was 4.1 percent in 2002 and 4.6 percent in 2007. However, nonmedical use of tranquilizers remained the same over the 6-year period.
Among persons aged 12 or older who used pain relievers nonmedically in the past 12 months, 56.5 percent reported that they got the drug most recently used from someone they knew and that they did not pay for it. Another 18.1 percent reported that they obtained the drug from one doctor. Only 4.1 percent purchased the pain reliever from a drug dealer or other stranger, and just 0.5 percent reported buying the drug on the Internet. Among those who reported getting the pain reliever from a friend or relative for free, 81 percent reported in a followup question that the friend or relative had obtained the drug from one doctor only.