Teens still drink. In fact, according to a survey from the University of Michigan, about four out of every 10 eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders drank alcohol in the last year. About 13 percent of them smoked cigarettes, too.
The good news is both of those are record lows for the annual survey, a survey that’s been conducted every year since 1975. Alcohol and cigarette use peaked in the late 1990s, when 61 percent of teens admitted to drinking, and nearly half said they’d smoked. Binge drinking and many types of drug use are also down.
However, not all the news is good news. As teens shy away from other forms of drugs, marijuana use continues to climb. In fact, for the first time ever, more high-school seniors are smoking weed daily than are smoking cigarettes. Only about 30 percent of 12th graders believe smoking marijuana is particularly risky—down from the 80 percent who said so back in 1991. (Slate, The Atlantic)