Pubdate: Tue, 20 Dec 2005
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2005 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Kate Zernike
Cited: Monitoring the Future study 
http://monitoringthefuture.org/data/05data.html
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?225 (Students - United States)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm (Ecstasy)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone)

DRUG SURVEY OF STUDENTS FINDS PICTURE VERY MIXED

Alcohol use and cigarette smoking among teenagers are at historic 
lows, but the number of high school students abusing prescription 
drugs like Oxycontin is rising, and sedative abuse is at its highest 
in 26 years, according to an annual national study released yesterday.

Asked whether they had used tranquilizers, barbiturates or sedatives 
for nonmedical use in the last year, 14 percent of high school 
seniors, 11 percent of 10th graders, and 7 percent of 8th graders 
said yes, according to the Monitoring the Future study, which the 
federal government considers the best benchmark of teenage drug use.

Among high school seniors, 7.2 percent had used sedatives without a 
prescription in the last year, up from a low of 2.8 percent in 1992, 
and a level not reached since 1979, when 7.5 percent of seniors 
reported using them. And 5.5 percent of seniors reported using 
Oxycontin, a potent pain killer, up from 4 percent in 2002, when the 
survey first asked about the use of the drug.

"If you told me heroin use was at 5 percent, most people would be 
very concerned," said Lloyd Johnston, the principal investigator of 
the study and a professor at the University of Michigan, which 
conducts the survey for the National Institute on Drug Abuse. "I'm 
not sure it's a whole lot less dangerous that Oxycontin use is at 
that level. This is a drug that has great potential for overdose and 
for creating dependence."

By contrast, less than 1 percent of high school seniors reported using heroin.

Officials noted that the prescription drugs were much more widely 
available than illegal drugs.

But they also spoke of a cultural shift; teenagers have grown up in a 
world where it is routine to reach for a prescription bottle to 
enhance performance, to focus better in school or to stay awake or calm down.

"They become part of our everyday lives," said Nora Volkow, the 
director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. "You see an ad for 
medication the way you see an ad for shampoo, and the message is that 
it's just like an everyday thing."

Other federal studies, Dr. Volkow said, estimate that six million 
America adults abuse prescription drugs. "When it comes to 
adolescents," she said, "we're used to worrying about illegal drugs, 
but we have to also be worried about the legal ones."

The study, conducted since 1975, surveys a nationally representative 
sample of about 50,000 students in 400 public and private schools.

Officials said the overall picture was good; the number of students 
who reported using steroids or smoking marijuana, which the White 
House Office of National Drug Control Policy considers the gateway to 
other drug abuse, has gone down or held constant. Over all, the 
office said, 700,000 fewer students were using illicit drugs in 2005 
than in 2001.

"These are remarkable declines," said John P. Walters, the director 
of drug control policy. "Almost every single illegal drug is down, 
and some dramatically."

Use of marijuana, the most widely used illicit drug, peaked in 1996 
and has continued to decline, though the decline held flat for eighth 
graders this year. Asked whether they had smoked marijuana in the 
previous year, 12.2 percent of 8th graders, 26.6 percent of 10th 
graders, and 33.6 of 12th graders said yes. Asked whether they had 
used other illicit drugs, 8.1 percent of 8th graders, 12.9 percent of 
10th graders, and 19.7 percent of seniors said yes. Less than 2 
percent in any group had used steroids.

Asked whether they had used alcohol in the previous year, 68.6 
percent of high school seniors said yes, compared with 70.6 percent 
in 2004 and 84.8 percent in 1975. Cigarette smoking has declined, 
too; 23.2 percent of seniors had smoked in the last 30 days, compared 
with 25 percent in 2004 and 36.7 percent in 1975.

The drugs that showed increases were sedatives - that includes 
sleeping pills like Ambien - Oxycontin and inhalants.

At the lowest point, in 1992, 2.8 percent of seniors said they had 
used sedatives. That rate had risen for a decade before leveling off 
in 2003, and has begun to rise again, to 7.2 percent. Oxycontin use 
among all three grades combined has risen 26 percent since 2002, from 
2.7 percent to 3.4 percent of all 8th, 10th and 12th graders. Many 
students, researchers said, believe the drugs to be safe because they 
are legal.

"There is some logic to that, because if you're buying Ecstasy, you 
have no idea where it was made or what's in it," Mr. Johnston said.

But with more drugs coming from Internet sources, he said, "I suspect 
lots of these drugs are not legitimately produced. So it's a false assurance." 
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake