Here's the good news: South Carolina and Georgia teens are less likely than their peers nationally to have used alcohol in the past 30 days.

Now, here's the bad news: Teens in South Carolina and Georgia are more likely to smoke cigarettes than other teens.

Those are some of the findings in the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which was compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and released Wednesday.

The data for the biennial national study of 14,000 teenagers in ninth to 12th grades in public and private school were collected last spring in an anonymous survey. The questions addressed risks that teens take, such as unintentional injuries and violence; unhealthy dieting; physical inactivity; sex; and tobacco, alcohol and drug use.

According to the survey, about 56.2 percent of South Carolina teens and 56 percent of Georgia high schoolers have smoked a cigarette at least once. The national average is 50.3 percent.

That higher-than-average occurrence of smoking could be an issue of accessibility, said Mary Stacy, the adolescent health and youth development coordinator for Georgia's East Central Health District. Tobacco has long been a big industry in the South, she said.

Minimal state taxes on packs of cigarettes also might make cigarettes more affordable to Georgia and South Carolina teens, according to Khosrow Heidari, a chronic-disease epidemiologist for the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control.

South Carolina is one of six states that hasn't increased its taxes on tobacco in 10 or more years. It has the lowest state tax, at 25 cents a pack. Georgia comes in 45th in tax rating, with 52 cents tax.

In alcohol use, 36.8 percent of South Carolina students reported they had consumed alcohol within 30 days of the survey, down from 43.2 percent in 2005. In Georgia, 37.7 percent of teens reported using alcohol in the past 30 days, compared with 39.9 percent in 2005. This year's national average was 44.7 percent.

Tim Robinson, the administrator of the Bradford Health Services drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers' regional office in Augusta, said he has noticed heavy enforcement of the drinking age in the area.

"We don't see a lot of alcohol use with young people," he said.

He has seen methamphetamine use decrease. He attributes the decline to increased funding and effort made by government agencies.

What he's seen with local teens is abuse of prescription drugs, cocaine ecstasy, and over-the-counter medications, especially cold medicine.

To see the full survey, visit www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/yrbs/index.htm.

Reach Sarah Day Owen at (706) 823-3223 or sarah.owen@augustachronicle.com.