ABSTRACT
Tell the people to hear this. If they want to get rid of drugs, they better focus on the problem. Drugs just ain’t the problem, man. Drugs is the crutch. Loneliness is the problem. Drugs is a way of getting away from the problem. (Baucom, 1989, p. 34)
The truth about drug use by contemporary youth is elusive. Self-reported data are sometimes of dubious validity, but nevertheless they are an important source of information on substance use and abuse. Monitoring the Future (1993) addressed a broad array of research objectives, including measuring and explaining changes in drug use among American young people. At present, 50,000 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-graders in more than 400 schools are surveyed annually by the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research. Substance abuse among children and adolescents increased explosively in the 1960s and 1970s. Alcohol and drug use remain prevalent in this population group. Today, the United States has the highest incidence of alcohol and other drug abuse among adolescents of any country in the world (Anderson, Kinney, & Gerler, 1984; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2003). The research data reflect a number of concerns about alcohol and other drug abuse among children and adolscents.
