How The "Monitoring The Future" Drug Study Got Started

Lloyd Johnston, of the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research, continues leadership of the national annual poll of thousands of teens about their drug habits and beliefs. Recently, the Institute was awarded $33 million to continue the poll until 2012. According to the San Francisco Chronicle April 6, 2008 article,("Funding An Epic Study Of Drug Habits") 'The study owes its birth to Nixon drug czar Dr. Robert DuPont, who read Johnston's 1973 book 'Drugs and American Youth' and invited the research assistant to Washington to brief his staff. Johnston pitched DuPont the idea he and colleague Jerald Bachman dreamed up of asking teens across the country about their drug, alcohol and tobacco habits and attitudes. DuPont was hooked, and secured funding for the first 'Monitoring the Future' study."

The article states, "The project was approved in August 1974 and the first surveys were conducted of 17,000 students the following spring. Released in late 1975, the results gave the nation a first comprehensive look at what its children were smoking, popping and drinking: 40 percent of high school seniors had used marijuana in the past 12 months and 45 percent had taken an illicit drug in that time. Teens' perception of the physical and psychological risks of marijuana began rising and their use rates started falling, the studies found. Twelfth graders' marijuana use peaked in 1979 at 51 percent, and stood at 32 percent last year."

The article adds, "The 45-minute confidential questionnaires now are given to 50,000 students in eighth, 10th and 12th grade each year, with cumulative data on more than 1 million students. With the $33 million grant, total funding has reached $120 million. The Council of Europe began a similar study 15 years ago - a project that now involves 45 countries. Around the world, researchers have drawn from the study methods used by Johnston's group. Thirty-three years of data have convinced Johnston that the single best way to cut teen drug abuse is to get information on drug dangers into the hands of teens. Focusing primarily on cutting supply won't work, he said."