Every year since 1975 researchers from the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, in conjunction with the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), have conducted the Monitoring the Future survey. The survey asks eighth-, tenth-, and twelfth-grade students whether they have ever used alcohol, tobacco, or drugs and whether they currently abuse these substances. Recent results of the yearly survey show that after declining throughout the 1980s, drug use among teenagers has increased during the 1990s. The survey also reveals that alcohol and tobacco abuse have remained unacceptably high. This state of affairs prompted Health and Human Services secretary Donna Shalala to declare that the entire nineties generation of high school students is at risk for addiction and dependence on drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes. Concerned that a number of today’s teens will become drug dependent, many public health officials recommend further study of the...