Papers across North America are reporting today on the results of the 2004 National Survey on Drug Use & Health which show that in 2004, teen girls ages 12 to 17 were more likely to be new users of marijuana, alcohol, and cigarettes than boys of the same age. They were also far more likely to suffer from depression. Key findings from the survey for Youths Age 12 to 17:
Among youths, the types of drugs used differed by age in 2004, as was the case in prior years. Among 12 or 13 year olds, 1.7 percent used prescription-type drugs nonmedically, 1.2 percent used inhalants, and 1.1 percent used marijuana. Among 14 or 15 year olds, marijuana was the dominant drug used (7.3 percent), followed by prescription-type drugs used nonmedically (4.1 percent) and inhalants (1.6 percent). Marijuana also was the most commonly used drug among 16 or 17 year olds (14.5 percent), followed by prescription-type drugs used nonmedically (5.1 percent), hallucinogens (1.7 percent), and cocaine (1.1 percent). Only 0.9 percent of youths aged 16 or 17 used inhalants.
Among all youths aged 12 to 17 in 2004, 10.6 percent were current illicit drug users: 7.6 percent used marijuana, 3.6 percent used prescription-type drugs nonmedically, 1.2 percent used inhalants, 0.8 percent used hallucinogens, and 0.5 percent used cocaine. The rate of current illicit drug use among youths aged 12 to 17 gradually declined between 2002 and 2004. The rate was 11.6 percent in 2002, 11.2 percent in 2003, and 10.6 percent in 2004. This represents a statistically significant change between 2002 and 2004, but not between 2002 and 2003 or between 2003 and 2004.
Past Month Use of Selected Illicit Drugs among Youths Aged 12 to 17: 2002-2004 
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The rate of current marijuana use among youths was 8.2 percent in 2002, 7.9 percent in 2003, and 7.6 percent in 2004, indicating a steady but not statistically significant decline. However, declines in past year and lifetime use of marijuana among youths from 2002 to 2004 were statistically significant.
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The three girls walked back to Upper Arlington High School after lunch yesterday, one smoking a cigarette and the other two inhaling her second-hand smoke. It’s a regular thing, although many times the other two are smoking as well.
The three juniors said most student smokers are afraid to light up when they’re walking so close to the school, but they aren’t. They puff away just a few hundred feet from the building.
"I’ve been smoking for quite a while," one of the girls said. "It was just something I tried and started doing."
The trio wasn’t surprised by a report, released today, that said teenage girls have surpassed boys when it comes to taking up smoking. Girls also are abusing prescription drugs at a higher rate and, for the first time, smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol more than boys.
Overall, the numbers for teens are going down, but the numbers for girls are declining at a slower rate than those for boys, according to a new analysis based on the 2004 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, which interviewed members of 70,000 households. It was a collaborative effort of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Seventeen magazine and the medical community.
About 1.5 million girls started drinking alcohol in 2004 versus a little fewer than 1.3 million boys, it said. Almost 200,000 more girls started smoking than boys in the same period, while about 98,000 more girls started using marijuana.
Girls, the report says, use drugs and alcohol for different reasons than boys. Girls report more cases of depression and a stronger need to improve their mood, cope with problems or lose inhibitions.
In Franklin County, the story is much the same. Girls tend to smoke and drink at a higher rate than boys, according to a survey conducted by the Safe and Drug-Free Schools Consortium.
In that survey, 10 percent of girls said they smoked regularly, compared with 9 percent of boys. Sixteen percent of girls said they drank alcohol at least once a month compared with 15 percent of boys.
As for marijuana usage, 11 percent of the boys surveyed said they used it regularly, compared with 9 percent of girls.
Robert J. Marx, executive director of the Rosemont Center, said he wasn’t surprised by the national report.
"We are seeing that trend with girls using more drugs and alcohol, a lot of it," Marx said.
Most teenagers who end up at Rosemont, a care center for troubled and abused youths on the East Side, have some sort of drug- or alcohol-abuse problem, Marx said.
"So many of the girls we see are girls who have been victims of abuse and neglect," he said. "It’s an attempt to not feel sadness and pain."
One 16-year-old girl, who is undergoing substance-abuse treatment at Maryhaven on the South Side, is one of those statistics. She said she started smoking at age 14, and a year later using marijuana and drinking alcohol and cold medications.
"I was curious at first," she said, "and then curiosity led me to hanging out with other people who were using. They progressed in their use, and I felt I had to keep up."
One of the girls walking to Upper Arlington started smoking in a similar way, while she was hanging out with friends.
"I liked the smell and the taste and I wanted to try it," she said.
For a group of Upper Arlington freshmen girls eating lunch at Wendy’s, dealing with drugs and alcohol in their everyday lives has been the biggest challenge of moving from middle school to high school.
Sierra Scarberry said drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana have almost become a badge of honor in high school, especially for girls. Scarberry said she has avoided that "honor," too.
"You want to do it just so you can say you did it," said Scarberry, the only girl who agreed to be identified.
As for the juniors walking back to the high school, they smoke because they like it. While they know it is bad for them, which the report said most girls acknowledge, they say they will continue to smoke.
"I will quit sometime before I turn 30," said the girl who has already failed to quit smoking once.
As for one of her two friends, "I don’t really want to quit. I’ll probably be the person who gets lung cancer when I’m 20, but I really enjoy it right now."
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