The bad news is they've replaced cigarettes with marijuana.
The 2010 Monitoring the Future Survey (MTF), an annual survey of 46,482 eighth, 10th, and 12th graders from 396 public and private schools conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor found more teens are indulging in illicit drugs than they were last year.
Sixteen percent of eighth graders reported using drugs within the last month, up from 14.5 percent in 2009.
In 2010, 21.4 percent of high school seniors used marijuana in the past 30 days.
More teens reported using other drugs, like Ecstasy, and non-medical use of prescription drugs remains high.
Also troubling is the increase in reported daily use of marijuana across all age groups.
The 2010 use rates were 6.1 percent of high school seniors, 3.3 percent of 10th graders, and 1.2 percent of eighth graders compared to 2009 rates of 5.2 percent, 2.8 percent, and 1.0 percent, respectively.
"These high rates of marijuana use during the teen and pre-teen years, when the brain continues to develop, place our young people at particular risk," said NIDA Director Nora D. Volkow, M.D.
"Not only does marijuana affect learning, judgment, and motor skills, but research tells us that about 1 in 6 people who start using it as adolescents become addicted."
The MTF survey also measures teen attitudes about drugs, including perceived harmfulness, perceived availability, and disapproval, all of which can predict future abuse.
Related to its increased use, the perception that regular marijuana smoking is harmful decreased for 10th graders (down from 59.5 percent in 2009 to 57.2 percent in 2010) and 12th graders (from 52.4 percent in 2009 to 46.8 percent in 2010).
Moreover, disapproval of smoking marijuana decreased significantly among eighth graders.
Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said the results of the MTF survey are disappointing and thinks the mixed messages about drug legalization could be to blame.
"Such messages certainly don't help parents who are trying to prevent kids from using drugs. The Obama administration is aggressively addressing the threat of drug use and its consequences through a balanced and comprehensive drug control strategy, but we need parents and other adults who influence children as full partners in teaching young people about the risks and harms associated with drug use, including marijuana," said Kerlikowske.
"We should examine the extent to which the debate over medical marijuana and marijuana legalization for adults is affecting teens' perceptions of risk," said Dr. Volkow.
"We must also find better ways to communicate to teens that marijuana use can harm their short-term performance as well as their long-term potential."
The MFT survey also revealed a rise in MDMA, or Ecstasy, use.
2.4 percent of eighth-graders citing past-year use, compared to 1.3 percent in 2009. Similarly, past-year MDMA use among 10th-graders increased from 3.7 percent to 4.7 percent in 2010.
The downward trend in cigarette smoking has stalled in all three grades surveyed after several years of marked improvement. More high school seniors are turning to other forms of tobacco such as small cigars (23.1 percent) and hookahs (17.1 percent).
And prescription drug abuse is still a major problem. 5.1 percent of twelfth graders reported using OxyContin, a prescription opiate -- about the same amount from last year's survey.
In fact, six of the top 10 illicit drugs abused by 12th graders in the year prior to the survey were prescribed or purchased over the counter. The survey again found that teens generally get these prescription drugs from friends and family, whether given, bought, or stolen.
Perhaps some promising news, however, is teens are doing less binge drinking.
The 2010 survey revealed among high school seniors, 23.2 percent report having five or more drinks in a row during the past two weeks, down from 25.2 percent in 2009 and from the peak of 31.5 percent in 1998.
In addition, 2010 findings showed a drop in high school seniors' past-year consumption of flavored alcoholic beverages, to 47.9 percent in 2010 from 53.4 percent in 2009. Past-year use of flavored alcohol by eighth graders was at 21.9 percent, down from 27.9 percent in 2005.
