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Bridget M. Kuehn

JAMA. 2008;299(4):399.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Although tobacco smoking and illicit drug use continue to decline among US teens, abuse of prescription and over-the-counter medications remains alarmingly high, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse's annual Monitoring the Future Survey.

While tobacco use and illegal drug use continue to fall among teens, more than 15% of high school seniors reported abusing medications in the past year. (Photo credit: Loic Bernard/iStockphoto.com)

For 33 years, the survey of about 50 000 8th, 10th, and 12th graders has provided a snapshot of drug and alcohol abuse among US teens (http://monitoringthefuture.org). According to the survey, daily tobacco smoking among 8th graders in 2007 was down to 3% from a 10.4% peak in 1996, and marijuana use in the past year among the same group was down to 10.3% from a peak of 18.3% in 1996. Officials from the agency attribute these positive trends . . . [Full Text of this Article]