WEDNESDAY, June 29 (HealthDay News) -- A new study reveals that 90 percent of Americans who are addicted to tobacco, alcohol or other substances started smoking, drinking or using drugs before they were 18 years old.
The study also found that one-quarter of Americans who began using any (addictive )substance before age 18 are addicted, compared with one in 25 Americans who started using an addictive substance when they were 21 or older.
And nearly half of American high school students now smoke, drink or use other drugs, according to the researchers at the National Center on (Addiction) and Substance Abuse CASA at Columbia University.
They said their findings show that adolescence is the most important period of life for the start of substance abuse and its consequences.
"Addiction is a disease that in most cases begins in (adolescence), so preventing or delaying teens from using alcohol, tobacco or other drugs for as long as possible is crucial to their health and safety," Susan Foster, CASA's vice president and director of policy research and analysis, said in a CASA news release. "We rightfully worry about other teen health problems like obesity, (depression) or bullying, but we turn a blind eye to a more common and deadly epidemic that we can in fact prevent."
