Drug use prevalence in a rural school-age population: the New Hampshire survey.

Pre-adolescent and adolescent drug use is a major public health concern in the United States. Although we have good prevalence data on some adolescents, we have little information on pre-adolescents, young adolescents, and rural children. We conducted a survey of 4,406 children in grades 4-12 in rural New Hampshire in 1990. Students completed annual self-report surveys on demographic characteristics, drug use, and psychosocial risk factors. These children are initiating drug use in elementary school. Alcohol is the preferred drug for both genders at all grade levels, followed by cigarettes, marijuana, and spitting tobacco. Current use of these drugs escalates in the sixth through ninth grades. Lifetime prevalence and 30-day prevalence increase slowly through high school. Most children who are going to use drugs have begun by the tenth grade. In this rural state, children's drug preferences are similar to those of other pre-adolescents and adolescents. Rural students have equal, and in some cases higher, lifetime and current use prevalence of alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco in comparison with national samples.