Teenage girls as young as 13 years old are starting to drink alcoholic beverages, smoke cigarettes and marijuana, take diet pills and prescription drugs at a higher rate than their male peers.

According to the ONDCP study, girls are at higher risk for physical and emotional damage from harmful substances, and they drink and do drugs for different reasons from their male peers.

A panel of high school graduates was able to shed light on the issue. The teens were promised anonymity by sharing their experiences with The Times Herald.

According to the study, 1.5 million teenage girls between the ages of 12 and 17 started using alcohol in 2004. Teenage girls who started drinking outnumbered their male peers by more than 200,000 in the same year.

Before partying regularly their senior years of high school, the young women said they were doing "nothing" on the weekends, such as going to the mall, working and going out to the movies.

More girls than boys have started using marijuana since 2002. It is also the most popular drug used among younger women, according to the report.

Seventeen magazine and "The Anti-Drug" campaign have cited the study in efforts to create awareness about young girls who use drugs and alcohol.

According to www.theantidrug.com, parents are advised to speak with teen girls about the dangers of drugs and alcohol to their physical and emotional well beings.

"I was kind of like 'Mom I don't care, don't talk to me, I know what I'm doing.' It went in one ear and out the other pretty much," she said.

"A lot of it is in my head," she said. "I know what she wants from me. I know she doesn't want me to do it. But I'm 20 years old. I want to experience things, you know? I want to plan for the future but live for today."

The teens said the first people they drank with were older friends. They also said they knew girls whom they considered especially young that were using harmful substances, usually with the older guys they were dating.

"I do know a couple young girls at the age of 14 that are like smoking, drinking and popping pills," said one young woman. "They usually hang out with older guys."

"When she was, like, a teenager - she actually had to go away to rehab. She got really sick from taking them one day, when she was in middle school I think," she said.

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