DRUG ABUSE

• In 1998, approximately 13.6 millions Americans used illegal drugs in 1998, 9.9% of kids between the ages of 12 and 17 used illegal drugs.
• In 1998, 8.3% of kids between the ages of 12 and 17 used marijuana.
• In 1998, approximately 1.8 million Americans 12 years old and over used cocaine.
• In 1998, 1.1% of youths were reported to be using inhalants.

  The National Institute on Drug Abuse reports:
  • That almost 50% of teens try marijuana before graduating high school.
  • That marijuana is the illegal drug that is most often used in the US.
  • According to The Cape Cod Islands Partnership to Reduce Substance Abuse, 1 in 5 kids have tried huffing by 7th grade.
  • Their study also concludes that inhalants are the 3rd most abused drug for kids between 12 and 14 years old.
  • Tobacco is the 1st most abused drug in the US; alcohol is the 2nd most abused drug (both for kids between 12 and 14 years old).

  The National School Safety Center reports that:
  • Out of 15,877 kids surveyed, 27% of middle school boys and 69% of
  high school boys say that they can get drugs if they wanted to.
  • Of these same kids surveyed, 9% of middle school boys and 19% of high school boys admitted to being drunk at school at least once within the past year.

TEEN PREGNANCY & TEENAGED SEXUAL ACTIVITY

The Kaiser Family Foundation found that:
• ¼ of sexually active teens in 9th through 12th grade say that they used
   alcohol or drugs during their most recent sexual experience.
• Males are more likely than females to report having done so.
• In 1997, 863,700 teenage girls got pregnant.

According to an article: Teen drug use drops, by David A. Vise in the Washington Post:
• Over the past 2 years, drug use has declined by 21%, which also mirrors the declining crime rate;
• Studies show that the younger a child is who uses marijuana, the more likely he or she will become a drug user as an adult

An article by By Heather Boonstra, Teen Pregnancy: Trends And Lessons Learned, in the Guttmacher Report on Public Policy for February 2002:
• Although teen birth rates have been declining over the past decade (they are now at record lows), the US still has one of the highest teen birth rates in the "developed" world.
• The reported cause of the decline in birth rates (as concluded by The Alan Guttmacher Institute [AGI]) was a result of the increased practice of abstinence
• by 1997, the rate of abortions in mothers between the ages of 15 and 19 were 28 in 1,000.
• In 1997, 93 women per 1,000 between the ages of 15 and 19 became pregnant.
• In 1995, approximately 51% of all teens had already had sex.
• In 1995, the rate of contraception use increased to 80% amongst teens.
• In a comparison made between the US, Canada, Sweden, England, Wales and France between 1970 and 2000, the US' teen birth rate was consistently higher than all of the other countries despite the cumulative decline in teen birth rates over all as compared with other countries, US teens are less likely to use physical and hormonal contraceptive methods.

According to Advocates for Youth,
• The federal government is spending $39 billion a year to support families that have been started by unmarried teenage mothers. This means that there is a greater amount of sexual activity beginning at a younger age.
• In 1995, 17% of 15 year old girls were already sexually active every year, 1 million girls between 15 and 19 years old get pregnant.

According to the CDC,
• In 1999, the percentage of teens having sex increased by grade 65% of seniors had had sex, whereas 39% of freshman had had sex.
• The average as to when teens start having sex is around 16.5 years old (16.5 years old for females and 16.4 years old for males).
• For teens sexually active teens between the ages of 15 and 17, 31% say that the reason they had sex for the first time was because they "met the right person." 16% of these teens say that they had sex for the first time because "the other person wanted to," and 15% say they had sex fort he first time because they were "just curious."
• For girls between the ages of 15 and 19, 69% say that their first time was "voluntary and wanted;" 24% say theirs was "voluntary but unwanted;" and 7% say that theirs was "non-voluntary."
• The younger the age of first having sex, the greater the chances are of it being an unwanted and/or non-voluntary experience.
• Most girls between the ages of 15 an 19 say their first time was with their partner, whom they knew "fairly well;" '73% say their partner was the person they were "going steady with;" 20% say their partner was with a friend or someone they occasionally dated.
• The younger the girl is when she had sex for the first time, the greater the average age difference is between her and her partner.
• About 2 out of 3 sexually active girls between the ages of 15 and 19 use contraception, but not every time they have sex, however, the use of contraceptives has increased over the last decade.
• In 1995, 19% of all sexually active girls between the ages of 15 and 19 became pregnant.

SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES (STDs)

Lifesite tells us that every year, there are 3 million new cases of STDs reported each year (50-100 times higher than other industrialized countries)

The Kaiser Family Foundation tells us that
• Every year, almost 4 million teens will contract an STD.
• 68% of sexually active teens 15-17 years old don't consider themselves at risk of contracting STDs.
• 70% of these teens have never been tested.
• 57% of these teens have never discussed STDs with a health care provider

PEER PRESSURE

The Kaiser Family Foundation states that:
• Almost 50% of 12-17 year olds say that modern teens face "a lot" of pressure in terms of sex and relationships.
• 2 in 5 teens say that they feel personally pressured about sex and relationships, 11% say "a lot" of pressure, 26% say "some" pressure
• Around 36% of teens between the ages of 13 and 18 years old say that they have done something sexual or felt pressure to do so when they didn't feel ready.
• Females are more likely to be forced to have sex than males

SCHOOL VIOLENCE

The National School Safety Center reports:
• Almost 1/3 of all US students say that they experience bullying, either as a victim or a bully.
• Bullying is more prevalent in kids in 6th through 8th grade as opposed to kids in 9th and 10th grade.
• Children who were bullied reported being more lonely and having difficulty making friends.
• Children who are bullies were more likely to have poor grades, and to smoke and drink alcohol
• 80% of girls surveyed (out of 70,000 students in grades 6-12) say that it "bothered them 'when others are insulted or hurt verbally'" whereas only 57% of the boys surveyed said that that same thing bothered them.
• In 2000, 1 in 5 high school aged boys say they have taken a weapon to school.
• Out of 15,877 middle and high school aged kids, 39% of middle schoolers and 36% of high schoolers don't feel safe at school.
• 37% of middle schoolers and 43% of high schoolers think that it's ok to hit or threaten a person who makes them angry; 19% of girls agreed.
• Out of the 15,877 kids surveyed, 75% of boys and 60% of girls have hit someone because they were angry.
• 31% of middle schoolers and 60% of high schoolers (surveyed) said that they could get a gun if they wanted to.