| HEALTH STATUS - Protective and Risk Factors |
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Results from the 2000 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA) indicated that approximately 24 percent of women aged 18-25 and 19 percent of females aged 12-17 had used some type of illicit drug within the past year. Marijuana was reported as the leading illicit drug used by women of all ages. Nearly one-fifth of women aged 18-25, 13 percent of females aged 12-17, and 3 percent of women 26 and older reported using marijuana in the past year. The 18-25 age group was also more likely to use cocaine, hallucinogens, and heroin. Women 18-25 years were twice as likely as males aged 12-17 and nearly five times as likely as women 26 and older to use cocaine. In addition, about 5 percent of women aged 18-25 used hallucinogens in the past year compared to 3.8 percent and 0.2 percent of females aged 12-17 and 26 and older, respectively. Women 18-25 years old were also twice as likely to use heroin as females 12-17 years old.
Inhalants were the only illicit drugs reported most frequently among females aged 12-17; this age group was twice as likely as women aged 18-25 and 35 times more likely than women 26 and older to use inhalants. With the exception of inhalant drugs, the proportion of women who used illicit drugs increased from the teen years to the mid-twenties and then decreased among women aged 26 years and older.