What does this measure?

The rate of adolescents aged 12-17 reporting use of marijuana or cocaine in the last 30 days.

Why is this important?

Drug use has serious long-term physical and mental effects on young people, and can be particularly damaging to the social and psychological development of a young person's brain. Some drugs can cause individuals to contract diseases such as HIV/AIDS or hepatitis, and can lead to death from an accident or overdose.

How is our county doing?

In 2021-23, 15% of Essex County youths reported using marijuana in the last 30 days, while 0.3% reported using cocaine. The marijuana usage rate among youth in Essex was similar to the state rate (14%) and slightly higher than the nation (11%). The rate of cocaine use among youth in Essex was similar to both the state and nation.

How do we compare to similar counties?

The rate of cocaine use among youth was similar across all comparison counties, while the marijuana usage rate was slightly lower in Lake County, IL (11%) than in Essex and other counties.

Notes about the data

Heroin use among people ages 12-17 is not available. Data come from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health sponsored by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. SAMHSA combined three years of responses to provide estimates for smaller geographic areas and increase the precision of its estimates.

For this indicator, the counties were defined by the "2021-23 National Survey on Drug Use and Health." Because of this, Essex County includes some parts of Middlesex County and Middlesex County includes some parts of Norfolk and Plymouth counties. In addition, the data for Westchester County contains two additional counties: Putnam and Rockland.