Adolescent marijuana use and binge drinking did not significantly change during the COVID-19 pandemic, despite record decreases in the substances' perceived availability, according to a federal survey of high school seniors in the United States.

Analyses of responses from 3,770 high school seniors surveyed by the National Institute on Drug Abuse found that students perceived a sharp decrease in availability of marijuana and alcohol in the months after the onset of the pandemic. For marijuana, the fraction of students who reported "fairly" or "very" easy access dropped by 17 percentage points, from 76% in the spring before the pandemic to 59% during the pandemic, and for alcohol, it dropped from 86% to 62%.

Despite the reported declines in marijuana and alcohol availability, the levels of use of these substances did not change significantly. Before the pandemic, 23% of students said they had used marijuana in the past 30 days, compared to 20% during the pandemic. For alcohol, 17% reported binge drinking in the past two weeks pre-pandemic, compared to 13% during the pandemic.

However, there was a moderate and significant decrease in nicotine vaping. Before the pandemic, 24% of respondents said they had vaped nicotine in the past 30 days, compared to 17% during the pandemic.

Body of Knowledge

The human sense of touch requires up to 10 billion times more energy to feel an object than sight needs to see an object. Sounds like a lot, but the pressure of 1/1,000 of an ounce applied to a single hair on an arm or leg is enough to be felt.

Mark Your Calendar

July is awareness month for cord blood, healthy vision, sarcoma, UV safety and cleft and craniofacial prevention.

Counts

46: Percentage of Americans age 19 and older who got a flu vaccine in 2017-2018, the latest data available.

12: Percentage of adults who had been vaccinated against hepatitis A.

32: Percentage who got the Tdap vaccine, which prevents tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Stories for the Waiting Room

Middle ear infections (acute otitis media) are common but painful afflictions of youth. When they are frequent, one remedy has been to surgically insert tubes, reducing the chances of fluid buildup and infections.

But a new study found that tubes were no more effective in avoiding ear infections than antibiotics. Both kids with tubes and those treated with antibiotics experienced infections at similar rates and similar degrees of severity.

Doc Talk

Auscultation: Listening to internal sounds of the body, usually through a stethoscope.

Phobia of the Week

Astraphobia: Fear of thunder and lightning.

Never Say 'Diet'

The Major League Eating record for pepperoni rolls is 43 rolls in 10 minutes, held by Joey Chestnut. Pepperoni rolls are bread rolls stuffed with pepperoni salami and baked. They were originally invented as a coal miner's lunch.

Best Medicine

Due to health concerns, my doctor recommended I go on a strict vegetarian diet and practice portion control. I'm happy to announce that I am down to one vegetarian a day, as they are surprisingly filling.

Hypochondriac's Guide

Auto-brewery syndrome occurs when people experience the effects of intoxication, including hangovers, without consuming a significant amount of alcohol, or any alcohol at all. It is caused by a type of yeast breaking down fermenting carbohydrates in the gut to produce ethanol.

Observation

"Whatever you do, always give 100%, unless you're donating blood." — Comedian Bill Murray

Medical History

This week in 1885, French scientist Louis Pasteur and his colleagues injected the first of 14 daily doses of rabbit spinal cord suspensions containing. a progressively inactivated rabies virus into 9-year-old Joseph Meister, who had been severely bitten by a rabid dog two days before. The immunization was successful, and the modern era of immunization began. Pasteur's rabies immunization procedure was rapidly adopted throughout the world. Meister grew up to become a janitor at the Pasteur Institute. He died in 1940 at the age of 64, committing suicide after Germany invaded France.

Perishable Publications

Many, if not most, published research papers have titles that defy comprehension. They use specialized jargon, complex words and opaque phrases such as "nonlinear dynamics." Sometimes they don't, and yet they're still hard to figure out. Here's an actual title of actual published research study: "Do ethicists steal more books?"

UC Riverside philosophy professor Eric Schwitzgebel published his findings in 2009 in the journal Philosophical Psychology. His finding: Yep, though the guilty ethicists are likely to think they're just borrowing. Schwitzgebel said this was not necessarily a bad thing since "the demand that ethicists live as moral models would create distortive pressures on the field."

Med School

Humans are famously composed primarily of water. 60% of the adult human body is water; 90% of body weight comes from the liquid. But percentages vary by organ. Can you match these organs with their percentage of water?

1. Brain and heart

2. Lungs

3. Skin

4. Muscles and kidneys

5. Bones

a) 31%

b) 64%

c) 79%

d) 83%

e) 73%

Answers: 1.e; 2.d; 3.b; 4.c; 5.a.

Curtain Calls

In 1987, 47-year-old Paul G. Thomas, co-owner of a Connecticut wool mill, fell into a machine and suffocated after he was wrapped in 800 yards of yarn. Thomas was operating a pinwheel dresser machine, which winds woolen yarn from a large spool onto a smaller one, when he fell onto the small spool. "You couldn't even see the guy at all" inside the yarn. "That's how fast" the accident happened, said a police spokesperson.

To find out more about Scott LaFee and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: bridgesward at Pixabay