Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Drug trends among King County youth

According to the report Drug Trends in the Seattle-King County Area, 2008, of all King County residents who entered substance abuse treatment in 2008, 81% of those who were admitted for alcohol addiction started using alcohol before the age of 18. Ninety-two percent of those who were admitted for marijuana addiction started using marijuana before the age of 18.

The chart below shows youth substance abuse treatment admissions in King County. By far, the primary drug for which youth seek treatment is marijuana, followed by alcohol.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hi Inga, your post made me thing about something my prevention mentor said long ago when I first was introduced to prevention through Stephen Glenn's Developing Capable People program.

My mentor said then if we could just delay use of alcohol until age 21 we could almost eliminate addiction to it. I wonder, can you cut the data by age 21 and see what the rate is?

Thanks for the data that nudges more questions.