Results from the European Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD) integrated with those from the U.S. Monitoring the Future Study revealed that American teens have high rates of illegal substance abuse when compared to European teens. On average, 18 percent of European trainees had actually used an illicit drug in their life times, compared to 35 percent of U.S.Given that 1999, the variety of drug overdose deaths involving opioids in the U.S. has actually quadrupled, totaling over a half a million deaths throughout that duration. While we now know more than ever about the threats of substance abuse, it appears that this knowledge has actually stopped working to function as a deterrent.