Did you notice what is missing in all the stories about the University of Michigan’s 2009 survey of teen drug use?

There’s nothing in any of them about what some people suggest is the scourge of school sports:  steroids.

In fact, you have to go to the last topic of the University of Michigan News Service press release to find anything about steroids.  Here’s what it says:

Teenage use of anabolic steroids increased in the late 1990s, reaching peak levels among 8th-graders in 2000, among 10th-graders in 2002 and among 12th-graders in 2004.  Since those recent peaks, however, annual prevalence of steroid use has declined considerably – by about half in grade 8, by nearly two-thirds in grade 10 and by 40 percent in grade 12.  In 2009, the proportions reporting any use of anabolic steroids in the past year were only 0.8 percent, 0.8 percent and 1.5 percent in grades 8, 10 and 12, respectively.  Among boys, who have considerably higher use than girls, the rates were 1 percent, 1.2 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively.

The University of Michigan survey is the largest survey on teen drug use, reporting results since 1975 and tracking more than 46,000 8th, 10th and 12th graders last year.  The most recent survey results released last month identified cigarette smoking and methamphetamine use in decline, but smokeless tobacco use on the rise, as was binge drinking, use of marijuana and abuse of prescription drugs.

 Visit ns.umich.edu and nida.nih.gov for more information.