However, the use of most of these drugs was declining since 1975 until recently. The other statistics are just as startling.
Alcohol is clearly the substance with which adolescents have the most experience.
Statistics vary but the best estimates indicate that there could be more than four million American alcoholics under the age of eighteen. And the age of experimentation is getting younger. Today's junior-highers are facing decisions about drugs that were once reserved only for older youth. Trying alcohol today is already more common among current fifth graders than it was among current eighth graders when they were in the fifth grade. Substance use among adolescents is a problem the size of Goliath.