BUENOS AIRES – Consumption of illegal drugs by Argentine adolescents has grown 62 percent over the past decade, La Nacion newspaper reported Thursday, citing surveys of high school students carried out by the Higher Institute of Health Sciences.

The proportion of students admitting to illegal drug use rose from 8.9 percent in 1999 to 14.6 percent this year, the daily said.

While teens’ alcohol consumption also rose – by 26 percent – during the last 10 years, cigarette smoking fell 7 percent, according to the institute, which surveyed 2,752 high school students in Buenos Aires province.

Among respondents who said they used illegal substances, 96 percent identified marijuana as their drug of choice.

Nearly 52 percent of the students surveyed said illegal drugs are easy to come by.

President Cristina Fernandez’s government last year created an advisory committee comprising judges, prosecutors, sociologists and other experts to help draft a law decriminalizing possession of drugs in small amounts for personal use.

In late August, the Argentine Supreme Court overturned the convictions of five people for possession of marijuana joints and declared criminal penalties for simple possession to be unconstitutional. EFE