Pubdate: Sat, 30 Jun 2001
Source: Chicago Sun-Times (IL)
Copyright: 2001 The Sun-Times Co.
Contact:  http://www.suntimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/81
Author: Frank Main
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

MARIJUANA USE UP AMONG CITY YOUTH

Kids growing up in Chicago and other cities watched heroin and crack 
cocaine wreck the lives of adults in their neighborhoods and opted 
for smoking pot in the 1990s.

But children in the suburbs didn't live through those life-and-death 
experiences and grew up with a taste for much harder drugs, such as 
Ecstasy.

These are some of the findings of Andrew Golub, a New York researcher 
who has been exploring drug trends of the last decade.

A study to be released today shows that Chicago led the nation in 
marijuana use among young adults who were arrested in the '90s. Most 
of those were from the city, said Golub, a co-author of the study.

A whole other population of young adults in the suburbs abused club 
drugs such as Ecstasy in the last decade, according to a separate 
study Golub plans to publish this fall.

"Youths in wealthier enclaves have not been afforded the same lessons 
yet," Golub said Friday.

The study was funded by the U.S. Justice Department and the Robert 
Wood Johnson Foundation.

It tracked young adults ages 18 to 20 who underwent urine tests for 
drugs after they were arrested from 1987 through 1999.

Seventy-four percent of the Chicago youths tested positive for 
marijuana in 1999--the highest level of the 23 cities included in the 
study.

Among young adults in trouble with the law, pot smoking started to 
escalate in Chicago in 1992 and steadily rose through 1997, when it 
reached a relative plateau, the study showed.

"There is evidence to suggest that the incubation phase of the new 
marijuana epidemic began with the youthful, inner-city, predominately 
African-American hip-hop movement," Golub said.

The good news, according to the study, is that the theory that 
smoking pot leads to abusing hard drugs may not be true.

"It would also be good news if the marijuana use were associated with 
a rejection of crack and heroin due to their potentially devastating 
consequences," the study said.

Chicago police spokesman Pat Camden confirmed that marijuana is the 
drug of choice for 18- to 20-year-olds, but he said it's not uncommon 
for young adults to use Ecstasy with pot.

Police seizures of marijuana have increased significantly in Chicago 
in recent years, Camden said.

The study's findings suggest that a new approach is needed for 
combatting drug abuse in Chicago, New York and elsewhere, Golub said.

"Drug control policies in this population should look more closely at 
some of the underlying issues, such as poverty, lack of community and 
family support, and lack of educational and career opportunities," he 
said. "[But] these youths are not damaging themselves as much 
physically and socially as previous generations of crack and heroin 
users."
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MAP posted-by: Josh Sutcliffe