Pubdate: Sat, 20 Dec 2003 Source: Washington Post (DC) Page: A01 Copyright: 2003 The Washington Post Company Contact: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491 Author: Ceci Connolly, Washington Post Staff Writer Note: Marsha Rosenbaum was seriously misquoted in this front page article. Cited: Drug Policy Alliance http://www.safety1st.org/ Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Monitoring+the+Future Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/walters.htm (Walters, John) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Herbert+Kleber Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Lloyd+Johnston Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Marsha+Rosenbaum Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Robert+DuPont FEWER TEENS REPORT THEY ABUSE DRUGS Decline Is Attributed to Ads and Crackdowns The number of American teenagers using illegal drugs fell markedly over the past two years, the first noteworthy decline in more than a decade, according to government data released yesterday. The percentage of high school students who reported they had used an illicit drug in the past month fell to 17.3 percent this year, down from 19.4 percent in 2001, according to the comprehensive "Monitoring the Future" survey. That translates into 400,000 fewer high school students using drugs. Although they cannot be certain, Bush administration officials attributed the decline to more aggressive and targeted anti-drug advertising, additional money for treatment and a drop in supply caused by law enforcement crackdowns. "This survey shows that when we push back against the drug problem, it gets smaller," said John P. Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. "Fewer teens are using drugs because of the deliberate and serious messages they have received about the dangers of drugs." Other analysts cautioned that drug use is cyclic and that the survey may understate the problem because it relies on young people to report their own illegal behavior. And although President Bush has increased funding for addiction treatment, he has cut spending for prevention programs. "I'm pleased there is a drop, but two years does not make a trend," said Herbert Kleber, professor of psychiatry and director of the division on substance abuse at Columbia University. "I would like to see the shape of the curve over the next couple years to see whether this is a blip." Since researchers began surveying eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders in 1975, teenage drug use has followed a roller coaster path. After climbing in the late 1970s and early 1980s, usage slowly fell to 10.5 percent in 1992. The rate rose again to a high of 20.6 percent in 1996 and persistently hovered in that range until 2002. Some of the biggest reductions came among teenagers who reported using marijuana and ecstasy, a chemical that behaves like a combination amphetamine/hallucinogen. "Marijuana use has held stubbornly high in the upper grades until now, and ecstasy was the only drug showing sharp increases," said University of Michigan researcher Lloyd Johnston, who was the lead author of the survey. Still, nearly half of all 12th-graders reported smoking marijuana at some time. Johnston's report credited ad campaigns specifically aimed at discouraging use of those two drugs and growing media attention to the reported risks of taking ecstasy. Some of the most familiar ads link drug use to terrorism through messages such as, "I helped kill a judge in Colombia" by purchasing illegal drugs. Marsha Rosenbaum, director of the San Francisco office of the liberal Drug Policy Alliance, saw other possible explanations. Often, she said, teenagers change their behavior after directly experiencing or observing the ramifications of drug use up close. She speculated that young people stopped using ecstasy when they saw friends die as a result. Georgetown University psychiatry professor Robert DuPont praised Bush and Walters for aggressively opposing state initiatives to legalize marijuana for medical use. Such initiatives have served to "normalize drug use," he argued. DuPont, who ran the White House drug policy office under Presidents Nixon, Ford and Carter, said proponents of medical marijuana won virtually every campaign in 1996, 1998 and 2000 but lost in every state contest they entered in 2002. "John [Walters] went out and made that happen," he said. This year, "Monitoring the Future" surveyed nearly 50,000 students in 392 high schools across the nation. The anonymous survey, which covers more than a dozen drugs, in addition to alcohol and tobacco, asks young people whether they have ever used each product or used it in the past month. The approach is meant to capture current and previous drug users. Although LSD use had been declining, Walters suggested the steeper drop in the last two years was the result of a bust in 2000 in Oregon. Police seized the equivalent of 20 million doses of LSD. "We didn't realize that LSD production was so centralized," he said. Researchers found no real change in the number of teenagers who reported using cocaine, heroin or alcohol, though binge drinking dipped slightly. More junior high students reported using less expensive, more readily available inhalants such as glue, paint thinner and aerosols. And officials remain concerned about improper use of oxycontin, a narcotic that is prescribed as a pain reliever but has become a popular recreational drug. "Considering the addictive potential of this drug, these are disturbingly high rates of use," said Johnston. Oxycontin was added to the survey in 2002, and the number of children in all three grades who reported taking the drug has risen. Researchers remain divided over the most accurate way to measure the nation's drug problem. DuPont said tracking drug usage is the clearest indication, but Rosenbaum and others say rising crime rates, drug overdoses and the number of addicted prison inmates suggest the situation is much more complicated. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake