According to data from the 2009 Monitoring the Future survey, the perceived risk of using ecstasy, inhalants, and LSD continues to decline among eighth-grade students.

Although 43 percent of eighth-grade pupils perceived a great risk of using ecstasy once or twice in 2004, only 26 percent perceived such a risk in 2009. The perceived risk of using inhalants declined from 46 percent in 2001 to 34 percent in 2009. The perception of a high risk from using LSD once or twice dropped significantly from 42 percent in 1993 to 21 percent in 2009.

According to Lloyd Johnston, principal researcher for the study, these declines in risk perception undercut "a major obstacle to experimentation."

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For further information, see the University of Maryland Center for Substance Abuse's CAESAR Fax at www.cesar.umd.edu/cesar/cesarfax/vol18/18-50.pdf