Cigarette smoking has dropped by one-third in the same period, the report says.
The rate of heavy drinking showed a smaller drop, which was attributed to changes in military demographics. The report tracked trends from six worldwide surveys of American military personnel, each including about 15,000 to 22,000 participants who answered confidential questionnaires. The surveys, sponsored by the Defense Department, covered the Air Force, Army, Navy and Marines. Survey participants were asked about drug use within the prior 30 days. When their responses were weighted to reflect the armed forces as a whole, they revealed that about 27.6 percent of military personnel used illicit drugs in 1980.