RELEASE: Nov 1 , 2004

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Commissioner Announces Results of Teen Substance Abuse Survey

CAMDEN – Drug, alcohol and cigarette use by New Jersey middle school students continues to decrease among students who participated in the “2003 New Jersey Middle School Substance Use Survey,” Commissioner James M. Davy announced today.

The anonymous survey polled a total of 10,983 seventh- and eighth-graders from public and private schools between March and May 2003. A total of 289 schools were recruited; of 93 (32.6%) agreed to participate and later returned completed surveys.

The level of substance use by New Jersey eighth-graders – particularly binge drinking and cigarette, inhalant and marijuana use – is lower than the national level reported in the 2002 Monitoring the Future study.

“It's encouraging that more New Jersey teenagers are getting the message that drugs and alcohol are dangerous,” Commissioner Davy said. “But we must remain diligent in trying to drive that message home to more of our youth. Experimentation is often associated with adolescents, who don't always realize that their experimentation could lead to an addiction or to death.”

“This is very good news,” said Assistant Commissioner Carol Ann Kane Caviola, who heads the Department's Division of Addiction Services. “This lets us know the middle school students are getting the dosage of prevention and treatment.”

Commissioner Davy made the announcement at East Camden Middle School and later met privately with a group of students involved in the School-Based Youth Services program, one of several Department-funded initiatives aimed at reducing substance abuse and providing counseling services.

Other prevention programs implemented by the Division of Addiction Services include a Peer to Peer Leadership/Educators program in which students in 139 middle schools in the state are given information by their peers about skills to resist substance use.

for middle school students. 

These types of programs are being expanded under the Child Welfare Reform Plan.

The two main objectives for the current survey: to estimate the prevalence of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs among middle school students and to identify risk and protective factors in order to effectively create prevention planning.

This was the third survey of New Jersey middle school students based on the Communities That Care ® Youth Survey . The previous surveys were conducted in 1999 and 2001.

The survey indicates that the reductions in use measured between 1999 and 2001 have continued across the majority of substance categories. Overall, in 2003, 14.3% of New Jersey middle school students were found to have used at least one illicit drug in their lifetime, and 4.5% were found to have used at least one drug in the past 30 days. Both figures were lower than the 2001 findings of 15.6% and 6.3%, respectively.

Of all substance use investigated, middle school students reported the highest prevalence rate for alcohol use.

Reports of cigarette use over the 30 days before the survey was conducted show the most impressive change over the past two years, dropping from 7.2% to just 4.8%.

Noteworthy reductions were also reported for past-30-day alcohol use (from 16.0% in 2001 to 13.8% in 2003) and past-30-day smokeless tobacco use (from 2.3% in 2001 to 0.5% in 2003). Particularly noteworthy differences among 8 th -graders were recorded for binge drinking (4.6 percentage points below Monitoring the Future ), past-30-day cigarette use (4.2 percentage points below Monitoring the Future ) and past-30-day marijuana use (4.5 percentage points below Monitoring the Future ).

As with alcohol, use of most tobacco products declined from previous years.

The survey also found:

•  The age of onset for alcohol, cigarette and marijuana use ranges between 11.6 and 12.5

•  Students who reported low grades were more likely to report past-30-day use than students who reported high grades.

•  The majority of the students perceived great risk of harm from smoking a pack of cigarettes a day, smoking marijuana regularly, and trying inhalants.

•  At least 85% of the students believed that it was “wrong” or “very wrong” to engage in any of the above behaviors

•  5% to 7% of students thought that substance or alcohol use would be seen as cool by their peers.

The full 2003 survey report can be found on the Department of Human Services website at http://www.state.nj.us/humanservices/das/das_reports.html.