This animated infographic on teen drug and alcohol abuse was produced by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, as part of Monitoring the Future, an annual survey of 8th, 10th, and 12th graders conducted by researchers at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan.
Transcript: Survey on Teen Drug and Alcohol Abuse
00:00 Music plays
00:03 On screen: Drug related words appear on screen with three human silhouettes on the left and three on the right. In the middle, a black diamond shape appears that reads “Teen Drug Use.” A blue banner appears across the bottom that reads “Monitoring the Future 2017.”
00:05 On screen: Background transitions to blue.
On screen text: Monitoring the Future is an annual survey of 8th, 10th, and 12th graders conducted by researchers at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, under a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the National Institutes of Health.
00:17 On screen: Background transitions to green.
On screen text: Since 1975, the survey has measured how teens report their drug and alcohol use and related attitudes in 12th graders nationwide; 8th and 10th graders were added to the survey in 1991.
00:28 On screen: Teal box drops down from the top
On screen text: 43,703 students from 360 public and private schools participated in the 2017 survey.
00:32 – 00:40 On screen: Blue banner appears across the top of the screen that reads “Daily Marijuana Use Mostly Steady.” An orange chart appears with a horizontal scale from 2007 to 2017 and a vertical scale of 1 percent to 7 percent. Three boxes appear left of center indicating 8th graders as green, 10th graders as light blue and 12th graders as dark teal. A green line graph crosses the chart, peaking at 1.5 percent in 2011 followed by a light blue line graph on top, peaking at 4.5 percent in 2013 and then a dark teal line graph on top of both peaking at 6.8 percent in 2011.
00:41 On screen: Teal box drops down from the top
On screen text: 71.0 percent of high school seniors do not view regular marijuana smoking as being very harmful, but 64.7 percent say they disapprove of regular marijuana smoking.
00:49 On screen: A tan background is revealed and a blue banner appears across the top of the screen that reads “Binge Drinking Rates Steady After Decades of Decline.” A line graph with a horizontal scale appears with dates from 1992 to 2017. A vertical scale appears with percentages from 5 percent up to 35 percent. A green line indicating 8th graders draws across the graph and a beer bottle appears with a tag that reads “1996, 13.3 percent” and ends with a tag at 2017 that reads “8th graders, 3.7 percent.” A light blue line indicating 10th graders draws across the graph and a beer bottle appears with a tag that reads “2000, 24.1 percent” and ends with a tag at 2017 that reads “10th graders, 9.8 percent.” Finally, a dark teal line indicating 12th graders draws across the graph and a beer bottle appears with a tag that reads “1998, 31.5” percent and ends with a tag at 2017 that reads “12th graders 16.6 percent.” A disclaimer at the bottom reads “*Binge drinking is defined as having 5 or more drinks in a row in the last 2 weeks.”
01:01 On screen: Teal box drops down from the top.
On screen text: Binge drinking appears to have leveled off this year, but is still significantly lower than peak years.
01:08 On screen: A light green background is revealed and a blue banner appears across the top of the screen that reads “Past-year e-vaporizer use and what teens are inhaling.” A black vertical line draws down the screen. Left of the line three boxes appear, on the top, a green box that reads “8th graders, 13.3 percent.” Right of the line, a green e-vaporizer extends horizontally to the right to show the amount. Below the green box, left of the line, a light blue box appears that reads “10th graders, 23.9 percent.” Right of the line, a light blue e-vaporizer extends horizontally to the right to show the amount. Below the light blue box, left of the line, a dark teal box appears that reads “12th graders, 27.8 percent.” Right of the line, a dark blue e-vaporizer extends horizontally to the right to show the amount. The dark blue, 12th graders e-vaporizer is the longest, indicating 12th graders use e-vaporizers the most.
01:16 On screen: The e-vaporizer graph disappears and the words, “When asked what they thought was in the e-vaporizer mist students inhaled the last time they smoked, these were their responses:” appears
01:23 On screen: The on-screen text shrinks and moves to the top of the screen. An orange chart appears with three boxes left of the chart – a green 8th graders box, light blue 10th graders box, and dark teal 12th graders box. The vertical scale spans from 10 percent to 80 percent and the horizontal scale includes the categories, “Nicotine,” “Marijuana or Hash Oil,” “Just Flavoring,” “Other,” and “Don’t Know.” Green, light blue and dark teal bars rise vertically above each category. The bars indicate that 50 percent – 75 percent of all three age groups think the e-vaporizer mist is “Just Flavoring” and 10 percent – 31 percent think the e-vaporizer mist is “Nicotine.”
01:37 On screen: Teal box drops down from the top.
On screen text: Nearly 1 in 3 students in 12th grade report past-year use of e-vaporizers, raising concerns about the impact on their long-term health.
01:45 On screen: A light teal background is revealed and a blue banner appears across the top of the screen that reads “Teens more likely to use marijuana than cigarettes.” Underneath the banner reads “Daily use among 12th graders.” A graph appears with a horizontal scale of dates ranging from 1992 to 2017 and a vertical scale from 0 percent to 25 percent. A marijuana leaf with a green tag that reads “1992, 1.9 percent” appears at the base of the vertical axis of the graph and a green line draws across the chart ending at the far right above 2017 with a green tag that reads “Marijuana, 5.9 percent.” The graph shows the increase in the likelihood that 12th graders will use Marijuana. At the same time, a white line draws across the graph starting at 17.2 percent in 1992, when it reaches its peak a pack of cigarettes appears with a white tag that reads “1997, 24.6 percent” and then dives down across the remainder of the chart where a second white tag appears and reads “Cigarettes, 4.2 percent” in 2017. This graph shows that in 2017, 12th graders are more likely to use marijuana than cigarettes.
01:57 On screen: A light gray background appears and a blue banner unveils across the top of the screen that reads “Past-year misuse of prescription/over-the-counter vs. illicit drugs.” Below that, an orange prescription pill bottle appears on the right.
On screen text: Past-year misuse of Vicodinâ among 12th graders has dropped dramatically in the past 15 years.
02:08 On screen: The pill bottle shrinks and moves to the top of the screen below the blue banner. A chart appears right of center with the title ” Vicodinâ ” at the top. The chart’s vertical scale ranges from 1 percent to 11 percent and the horizontal scale has dates from left to right – 2002, 2007, 2012 and 2017. Small white pills fall from the bottle, landing on specific data points. One pill lands on 2002 and a teal tag appears that reads “9.6 percent,” the next lands on 2007 at 9.6 percent, the next lands on 2012 at 7.5 percent and the last pill lands on 2017 and a teal tag appears that reads “2.0 percent.” The graph shows a dramatic decrease in the misuse of Vicodinâ over the 15-year span.
02:13 On screen: A teal box drops down from the top.
On screen text: Misuse of all prescription opioids among 12th graders has also dropped dramatically, despite high opioid overdose rates among adults.
02:20 On screen: Teal box pulls down to reveal the blue banner that still reads “Past-year misuse of prescription/over-the-counter vs. illicit drugs.” Underneath the blue banner the title, “Prescription/OTC” appears. An orange box appears below the title. Percentages appear down the left side of the chart while blue bars extend horizontally from left to right in the orange box to visually represent the amounts of prescription, over-the-counter and illicit drugs that were misused in the past year. From top to bottom the chart reads, “5.5 percent, Adderallâ,” “4.7 percent, Tranquilizers,” “4.2 percent, Opioids other than Heroin,” “3.2 percent, Cough/Cold Medicine,” “2.9 percent, Sedatives,” and “1.3 percent, Ritalinâ.”
02:32 On screen: The chart changes. The title reads “Illicit Drugs, past-year use among 12th graders.” The chart animates similar to the previous chart, percentages are listed down the left of the chart, while blue bars extend from left to right. From top to bottom the chart reads, “37.1 percent, Marijuana/Hashish,” “3.7 percent, Synthetic Cannabinoids*,” “3.3 percent, LSD,” “2.7 percent, Cocaine,” “2.6 percent, MDMA (Ecstasy/Molly),” “1.5 percent, Inhalants,” and “0.4 percent, Heroin.” An asterisk below the chart notes that Synthetic Cannabinoids are called “synthetic marijuana in survey.”
02:44 On screen: A teal box drops down from the top.
On screen text: Students report lowest rates for some drugs since start of the survey.
02:48 On screen: A green screen drops down from the top.
On screen text: Across all grades, past-year use of heroin, methamphetamine, cigarettes, and synthetic cannabinoids* are at their lowest by many measures. An asterisk at the bottom of the screen notes that Synthetic Cannabinoids are called “synthetic marijuana in survey.”
02:55 On screen: Green screen changes to dark gray screen with Department of Health and Human Services and NIH National Institute on Drug Abuse logos.
On screen text: For more information, please visit Drugabuse.gov
03:07 Music ends