Pubdate: Tue, 17 Dec 2002
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2002 San Jose Mercury News
Contact:  http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390
Author: Fox Butterfield, New York Times

MORE TEENS JUST SAY NO

Study: Smoking, Drinking And Drug Use Drop

Smoking, drinking and the use of illegal drugs among teenagers fell 
simultaneously this year for the first time, according to an annual survey 
conducted for the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

The survey, known as Monitoring the Future, and carried out by the 
University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research, also found a drop 
in the use of the club drug ``ecstasy'' after several recent years in which 
the drug had exploded in popularity among adolescents.

``The fact that there are such broad declines in all forms of substance 
abuse is very encouraging,'' said Lloyd Johnston, a University of Michigan 
psychologist who led the study.

But the use of heroin, cocaine and crack cocaine, drugs for which there has 
been far less of an organized campaign by the government or private groups 
to publicize their dangers in the past few years, held about even, 
according to the study.

The survey tracks substance abuse among eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders, 
using a randomly selected sample of 44,000 students in 400 schools across 
the nation. It has been conducted since 1975. Because of its methodology, 
the size of the sampling and the prestige of the institution conducting it, 
the survey is considered the most reliable indicator of teenage substance 
abuse.

Experts offered varied theories for the declines.

Johnston said the across-the-board drop in smoking, drinking and drug use, 
which took place among all three grade levels, suggested that some large 
force was at work, perhaps the impact of the Sept. 11 attacks.

``A decline in use already was under way for a number of substances, 
including cigarettes, inhalants, LSD and others,'' Johnston said.

``But the downturn in alcohol this year was striking and overall illicit 
drug use began to decline for the first time across the board,'' he said. 
``So, I think it quite possible that the tragedy of 9/11 had somewhat of a 
sobering effect on the country's young people.''

John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control 
Policy, agreed that the events of Sept. 11 played a role in the decrease in 
teen smoking, drinking and drug use.

``Before 9/11 the world was a giant shopping mall for young people,'' 
Walters said. ``Now, they are taking things more seriously and paying 
attention to adult warnings about risks.''

But Dr. Glen Hanson, the acting director of the National Institute on Drug 
Abuse, said there was no scientific evidence of a Sept. 11 effect. The 
survey does not question students about why they do or do not use drugs.

``It has not been studied,'' Hanson said. ``You could make the opposite 
case -- that 9/11 made people more anxious and prone to substance abuse.''

Instead, Hanson said he believed the explanation for the overall drop lay 
in teenagers' increased perception of the risks involved in smoking, 
drinking and drug use with an increase in negative advertising on TV and in 
other media, some of it paid for by the settlement of lawsuits with tobacco 
companies.

One of the biggest declines occurred in smoking, with the proportion of 
teenagers who said that they had never smoked cigarettes falling by four or 
five percentage points compared with 2001 in each of the three grades.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom