Data from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health show that of six illicit activities investigated in 1990 among students in grades 7-12, current (within the past 30 days) involvement with the lottery is exceeded only by current prevalence of alcohol use. Current prevalence estimates (compared with lifetime or past year estimates) provide conservative rates of use but also provide more insight into potential problems. While the use of alcohol and other drugs by adolescents commonly is recognized as illicit, in Massachusetts it is also illicit for those under the age of 18 to purchase a lottery ticket.
Source: Adapted from Alcohol and Other Drug Use Among Massachusetts Adolescents prepared by Health and Addictions Research, Inc. for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health; data on lottery gambling derives from a Massachusetts Department of Public Health aggregate data set collected at the request of the Massachusetts Council on Compulsive Gambling and the Norman E. Zinberg Center for Addiction Studies at The Cambridge Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
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For more information contact the Massachusetts Council on Compulsive Gambling, 190 High Street, Boston, MA 02110.