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More teenagers using cocaine; still drinking and smoking, CDC says
ATLANTA — More teenagers are using cocaine and regularly smoking and drinking, but an increasing number are also wearing seat belts and refusing to ride with a driver who’s been drinking, according to a survey released Thursday.
The annual survey, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in schools across the country, examined the behavior of 13,600 high school students.
The survey found injury and violence-related behaviors have fallen, but kids still regularly smoke and drink — nearly half said they’d consumed more than one alcoholic beverage more than once in the month before the survey.
The number of teenagers who said they had tried cocaine within the past 30 days rose to 9.4 percent, up from 5.9 percent in 1991. About 4.2 percent of students said they had used cocaine in the past 30 days, a 59 percent increase from 1991.
