--- title: Drug Use Among Teens Down Nearly 25% description: New data show that efforts to reduce drug use among teens have succeeded, to an extent. canonical: https://time.com/3387433/teens-drug-use/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-16T18:37:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T10:13:03.335Z article:section: Health og:title: Drug Use Among Teens Down Nearly 25% og:description: New data show that efforts to reduce drug use among teens have succeeded, to an extent. og:url: https://time.com/3387433/teens-drug-use/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt83a97a838dde902c/6986a39acd68486c4d096795/177178886.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Camden Battles Crime And Poverty In Effort To Re-Vitalize Community og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Drug Use Among Teens Down Nearly 25% twitter:description: New data show that efforts to reduce drug use among teens have succeeded, to an extent. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt83a97a838dde902c/6986a39acd68486c4d096795/177178886.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Teens Are Using Drugs Far Less Than They Used To > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=70ba0df8-bda1-40d3-9016-18d0cbf3f43b&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Sep 16, 2014 6:37 PM UTC  Reggy Colby, age 30 and a recovering heroin addict, displays a bag heroin is sold in, on August 21, 2013 in Camden, New Jersey. Reggy Colby, age 30 and a recovering heroin addict, displays a bag heroin is sold in, on August 21, 2013 in Camden, New Jersey. Andrew Burton—Getty Images by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Sep 16, 2014 6:37 PM UTC New data show that efforts to reduce drug use among teens have succeeded, to an extent. Illicit drug use among people age 12 to 17 is down 24% since 2002, according to the 2013 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, released Tuesday by the [Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration](http://www.samhsa.gov/data/NSDUH/2013SummNatFindDetTables/NationalFindings/NSDUHresults2013.htm). About 8.8 % of young people surveyed were current illicit drug users, down 13% from 2009\. Fewer adolescents also reported consuming alcohol, with 11.6% reporting doing so in 2013 compared to 12.9% in 2012. The survey also had promising data on the efforts to reduce opioid abuse. Though 4.5 million Americans 12-years-old and above reported using pain-relievers for non-medical purposes in 2013—a rate unchanged from 2011 and 2012—there was a slight decline among young adults who have had the highest rates of abuse. Abuse of opioids, including pain relievers and heroin, has been particularly concerning due to the rates of [overdose among users](http://www.cdc.gov/HomeandRecreationalSafety/pdf/HHS%5FPrescription%5FDrug%5FAbuse%5FReport%5F09.2013.pdf). About 24.6 million Americans are illicit drug users, according to the annual survey. The most common illicit drug among Americans is marijuana; about 19.8 million people reported using the drug within the past month in 2013. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3387433/teens-drug-use/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3387433/teens-drug-use/"},"headline":"Teens Are Using Drugs Far Less Than They Used To","datePublished":"2014-09-16T18:37:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:13:03.335Z","description":"About 8.8 % of young people surveyed were current illicit drug users, down 13% from 2009.","url":"https://time.com/3387433/teens-drug-use/","keywords":["Drug Policy","Drugs","health"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt83a97a838dde902c/6986a39acd68486c4d096795/177178886.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt83a97a838dde902c/6986a39acd68486c4d096795/177178886.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Camden Battles Crime And Poverty In Effort To Re-Vitalize Community","caption":"Camden Battles Crime And Poverty In Effort To Re-Vitalize Community","creditText":"Andrew Burton—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3387433/teens-drug-use/","name":"Teens Are Using Drugs Far Less Than They Used To"}}]}] ```