This indicator is limited to the 8th grade respondents to the Washington States Department of Health’s Healthy Youth Survey which is administered every two years at selected schools statewide.    The rationale for using only the 8th grade respondents is based on the survey response rate.  Response rates of 70% or greater are felt to be representative and generalizable to the students in this grade group.  Response rates of less than 70% may not be representative of the grade group.  Response rates for 10th graders in Pierce County were 71% for the 2010 Healthy Youth Survey, but for 12th graders in Pierce County were 65 %.  Response rates in Pierce County for 8th graders in 2010 were 78%.

In 2008, 2.7 percent of the local 8th grade respondents reported having used methamphetamine at least once in their life.  In the 2010 survey, 3.6%, or nearly four out of every hundred of 8th graders report having used meth at least once in their life which is a 28% increase when looking at the total number reporting. 

This year because of the response rates, we are able to look at the 10th graders that were in 8th grade during the 2008 survey.  The number more than doubled from 116 in 2008 to 245 (4.3%) in 2010, which means that between 8th and 10th grade 129 more children used methamphetamine at least once.