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On any given day, about 1.2 million American teens smoke, 631,000 drink alcohol, and 586,000 use marijuana, according to a new study from the Substance Abuse and Mental Men’s health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

Reuters reported Oct. 18 that the report was based on a variety of previously published studies, notably the National Survey on Drug Use.

“While other studies have shown that significant progress has been made in lowering the levels of substance abuse among young people in the last few years, this report shows many young people are still engaging in risky behavior,” said SAMHSA Administrator Terry Cline. “By breaking the data down and analyzing it on a day-to-day basis, we gain a fresh perspective on how deeply substance abuse pervades the lives of many young people and their families.”

The report also estimated that on an average day almost 50,000 teens use inhalants, 27,000 use hallucinogens, 13,000 use cocaine, and 3,800 use heroin. Also, on any given day 8,000 adolescents try alcohol for the first time, 4,300 try their first illicit drug, and 4,000 light up their first cigarette.

Each day also finds about 76,000 children and teens in outpatient addiction treatment programs and 10,000 in non hospital-based programs.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 18th, 2007 at 5:10 pm and is filed under Drug news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.