Comments:U.S. teens generally reducing risky behavior says CDC

I don't know how accurate the study is honestly, considering many of the students probably lied about certain things for fear of repercussions. It said it was anonymous, but I was still a little wary about discussing marijuana, alcohol, and tobacco usage in case it could be traced back.


 * Oh, absolutely, in surveys like this there's always a lot of potential sources of error - not everyone who was given the survey answered it, and the people who didn't answer might be different to the people who did. I've had a look at the methodology report from the 2003 study, and they do give a little background into non-response issues. It's much harder to estimate how many people lied, but if people lied consistently between surveys the movements are still valid. Chris Mann (Say hi!|Stalk me!) 03:59, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

I recently took a survey for the goverment after i got out of high school. Everything on the survey was about drugs on how easy to get it and how much you use it. I was honest on the survey but I can't speak with the rest of the teen population. But looking at my old high school, it hard to say this study is right on the dot. --66.229.25.248 08:17, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

I'm kind of horrified by this study.

To make a link between sex and health, it's so... surprising.

I don't see how sex, if you use a condom, is risky for you.
 * I'm prepared to be corrected on this, but I believe women are more susceptible to cervical cancer based on how early they engage in sexual activity. --Brian McNeil / talk 13:16, 11 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Sex with a condom is still riskier than abstinence, especially given that a condom doesn't have a 100% success rate (and is even more likely to fail if used incorrectly). Incidentally, if you look at the full results of the survey, two of the questions asked involve condom use and the teaching of safe sex. Chris Mann (Say hi!|Stalk me!) 01:59, 13 June 2008 (UTC)

I wonder what the statistics for Asian students were.
 * What's that got to do with the price of cheese? The United States is a multicultural society, and in most cases does a fair job of making sure people are relatively well integrated - regardless of race or ethnicity. --Brian McNeil / talk 21:35, 11 June 2008 (UTC)
 * I suspect the comment was about Asian American teenagers. Asian Americans make up about 5% of the US population. --SVTCobra 21:45, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

If you had stated "unprotected sex", "sex with multiple partners" or even a generalization such as "dangerous sex" I wouldn't be commenting on this. I fail to see how just "sex" is a health-risk. In my eyes sex is a completely natural interaction between two persons and has, to my knowledge, more direct positive consequences than negative ones (I tried to find some info on this on Wikipedia but couldn't find anything related to the toxins released by the human body which make us feel good and happy during and after sex).

Of course if one were to have multiple sex partners over a short timespan while not using any protection, one could say this might lead to the contraction and/or spreading of STDs. However I doubt anyone would view this type of behavior as having just "sex" and more as dangerous sexual behavior.

For as far as I know having sex with one regular partner is no more a health-risk than going outside and breathing in the polluted air that comes with living in nearly any industrialized nation. If I am mistaken here feel free to correct me as I'd be glad to learn something new. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.190.253.149 (talk) 10:04, 13 June 2008 (UTC)

Increase in prescription drug abuse instead?
In our boarding school and therapeutic program we're seeing increased use of prescription drugs as the drug of choice for teenagers, which the study doesn't show. Perhaps more kids are shifting to that and leaving the riskier use of pot alone. I think it should be examined, since America is on a prescription drug binge overall -- even drugs used for ADD or ADHD treatment -- and these drugs find their way into teenager's hands or can be purchased from peers at school. More about our program at http://www.heartlightministries.org.