Ontario Students Drinking, Smoking Less

Popularity of marijuana, alcohol, and cigarettes falling; high schoolers becoming decidedly more square.

Great news, Ontario parents! Your kids are smoking and driving drunk less than ever before, according to a study of high schooler's intoxication habits. Only nine per cent of Ontario students told the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health survey that they smoke, down three percentage points from two years ago. Similarly, just seven per cent admitted to getting behind the wheel of a vehicle while drunk, down from 12 per cent in 2009. (In case you needed further proof that the 1980s were just about the nadir of modern humanity, the study found in that decade that 46 per cent of Ontario teens drove drunk.) Students were more likely to smoke weed than drive (12 per cent), although the overall number of students smoking pot fell four percentage points from 2009, with 22 per cent of teens confirming they've lit up in the last year. Binge drinkers, defined as having more than five drinks in one sitting at least once a month, also fell from 26 per cent of students to 22 per cent. All told, fifty-five per cent of students drank at least one drink of alcohol in the past year.