Teen drug and alcohol use has fallen

[lowpro]

I worked with some college students from South Korea, and they were very surprised that hardly anyone smokes on campus, mainly people from outside the country. Although it's decreased in the US, I wonder if the cig companies have coped by pivoting into the global market and pushing hard that way.

Also, I'm betting that alcohol consumption isn't down overall in teens, they're just smart and would never say they've had a drink or drink at any point. Speaking from very recent personal experience.

[setrofim_]

> I wonder if the cig companies have coped by pivoting into the global market and pushing hard that way.

That is exactly what happened. Global tobacco business is better than ever:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UsHHOCH4q8

[rednerrus]

They have better drugs now: Internet, iPhone, Facebook.

[galago]

"They have better drugs now" could also be followed by a list of common prescription drugs. I think there was a previous thread about this study showing that Adderall and methamphetamine are, at similar dose, indistinguishable.

http://theinfluence.org/neuroscientist-meth-is-virtually-ide...

[collyw]

I can assure you, those aren't better than the drugs that my friend tried in the past.

[plussed_reader]

Boy oh boy, I'd love to see this data correlated with which parts of the country practice comprehensive sex ed vs abstinence only (mis)education.

[allenz]

There might be a correlation, but it wouldn't prove anything. The data might be just as strongly correlated with income, class, race, etc.

[jondiggsit]

Who needs drugs and alcohol when the kids are hopelessly addicted to input

[eliasbagley]

Hey man... Got any more of that snow crash?

[mc32]

Cigarette smoking has trended down. There was an article the other day claiming that evidence showed cig smokers tended to eventually drink and go into other drugs.... So, if cigs were a gateway, then it could make sense alcohol and other drugs use has gone down.

[mariojv]

Maybe that decline was caused by a rise in e-cigarette usage?

https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/i...

[taurath]

Could be that the kids who used to be likely to smoke cigarettes are all on adderall instead.

[spoiledtechie]

If this is true, it proves the gateway drugs can have a large affect on stronger things.

[jaclaz]

I suspect that also sex and rock'n roll are not going that strong anymore ...

[TallGuyShort]

My disappointment every time I turn on the radio concurs with your hypothesis.

[kkoomi]

It's pretty fun finding and deleting all the HTML/JS elements in Chrome that block the article..

[rShergold]

Or in Chrome, the Just Read plugin actually makes the internet usable again!

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/just-read/dgmanlpm...

[ars]

In Firefox just click the readability icon.

[fatdog]

There could be a diversity effect in their data, given demographic changes as a consequence of immigration patterns, relationship to authority, and cultural attitudes toward alcohol.