Yoon Lee, Utah State University
Family, Consumer, and Human Development
Drug abuse in America is a major problem that has been well documented throughout history. Marijuana use has increased among most age levels and is the most abused illicit drug in America. Cocaine use has also increased over the past decade. Possibly the most alarming trend is the fact that hospital visits due to drug abuse of any kind are dramatically increasing each year. Using data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (2010), this study explored to what extent adolescents and young adults were involved with Marijuana or Cocaine abuse and to investigate factors associated with their use of such illicit drugs. For the data analyses, the total sample included 37,926 individuals between the ages of 12 and 25; the sub-sample of this study consisted of Adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 (n=18,622) and young adults between the ages of 18-25 (n=19,304). The descriptive statistics suggested that among the study sample, 35.3 percent reported they ever used marijuana, while 7.5 percent reported they ever used cocaine. The results of logistic regression analyses show that all else being equal, age, health, gender, race, county size, and illicit drug addiction are statistically significant in predicting the likelihood of reporting marijuana experience among young adults between ages of 12-25. Similarly, the results of logistic regression analyses show that all else being equal, age, health, gender, education, race, county size, and illicit drug addiction are statistically significant in predicting the likelihood of reporting marijuana experience among young adults between ages of 12-25.