Marijuana use holds steady among US teens Survey also tracks use
of synthetic drugs Marijuana use is holding steady among eighth,
10th- and 12th-graders in the United States and tobacco smoking
rates remain low. Those are some of the results published in the
annual Monitoring the Future study, a survey of more than 45,000
8th, 10th, and 12th graders from 395 public and private schools.
It was released Wednesday. Each year, the survey gathers
information from teens about their use of alcohol, drugs, and
tobacco, as well as asking them questions regarding their
attitudes about the drugs. This year, 6.5% of 12th-graders said
they smoke marijuana daily. That's slightly down from 2011, when
6.6% said they smoked it daily. Teens' perception about the
harmfulness of using marijuana was down, which may signal future
increases in marijuana use, according to the study's principal
investigator, Lloyd Johnston. Overall, 41.7% of eighth-graders
perceive occasional marijuana use as harmful and 66.9% see
regular use as harm