Although it depends on the drug, drug use in adolescents has been on the rise. A survey taken in 2012 by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University found that 90 percent of high school students in the U.S. were aware of other students using illicit drugs, during school hours.The use and abuse of alcohol and other illicit substances has a substantial impact on school performance for teens. Not only do grades suffer but students also lose interest in healthy social and extra curricular activities. Eventually, drug abuse can lead to dropping out of school or much, much worst.
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This has a lot to do with the recent increase in popularity of marijuana. Teens don't see the risk and are increasingly perceiving marijuana as a "safe drug." According to Caleb Hellerman's article "Is super weed, super bad?," 60% of high school seniors don't see regular marijuana use as harmful, but the active ingredient in the drug is nearly 5 times stronger than it was 20 years ago. According to the 2013 MTF report, when given a survey, 7 % of 8th graders, 18 % of 10th graders, and 23 % of 12th graders said they used marijuana in the past month. The report also shows trends in reduced use of inhalants and less use of cocaine, especially crack cocaine. Although drugs like cocaine and inhalants have been on a downward trend, heroin is doing the opposite. The use of heroin has remained steady over the last couple of years and is slowly increasing. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Service's. "Regular marijuana use by teens continues to be a concern." says, 40% of high school seniors believe it's not harmful to use heroin once or twice in their life.
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https://www.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-about-teens-and-drug-use
Sources:
http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1112680588/teenage-drug-use-school-082312/
http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/high-school-youth-trends
http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/09/health/weed-potency-levels/.
http://www.nih.gov/news/health/dec2012/nida-19.htm
http://www.caron.org/knowledge-library/statistics-outcomes/school-problems-addiction
