What teenagers think adults think about youth alcohol, tobacco and marijuana use

These charts show the percent of King County and Washington State 6th, 8th, 10th, and 12th grade students who report that adults in their neighborhoods think youth alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use is "very wrong".  As you see, the older children get, the less likely they are to think adults disapprove of drug use.  

Source: 2010 Healthy Youth Survey.  King County results are posted on the Prevention WINS website.

Youth perceive risk of harm from tobacco and use it at lower rates than alcohol and marijuana

These charts show the percent of King County and Washington State students in grades 6, 8, 10 and 12 who report great risk of harm from using different substances.  (Source: 2010 Healthy Youth Survey -- HYS.)  Results from the 2010 HYS also show that tobacco use rates among youth are much lower than the rates of youth alcohol and marijuana use.

Teenagers find it easy to get alcohol

State and King County results from the 2010 Healthy Youth Survey (HYS) were recently released.  Among the questions that students in grades 6, 8, 10 and 12 were asked is how difficult it would be to get alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana.  As is shown in the charts above,  perceived availability declines significantly for all substances as children get older.  HYS results also show that adolescents find it easier to get alcohol and cigarettes, both legal and regulated, than it is to get marijuana.