A new report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that Tennessee teenagers are using heroin and shooting up drugs at twice the national average. The bi-annual Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Report is based on surveys of high school students between September 2012 and December 2013.
The report found that nearly 20% of Tennessee teenagers use pills recreationally. Nearly 4.5% of Tennessee high schoolers reported using heroin and almost 5% reported using methamphetamines; 4.7% reported injecting illegal drugs; the national average during the survey period was 1.7%.
But Tennessee teens may be more at risk on the road: 41 percent said they texted while driving; nearly 20 percent reported riding with someone who had been drinking alcohol; and 90 percent reported rarely or never wearing a bicycle helmet.