Pubdate: Fri, 10 Aug 2007
Source: North County Times (Escondido, CA)
Copyright: 2007 North County Times
Contact:  http://www.nctimes.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1080
Note: Gives LTE priority to North San Diego County and Southwest 
Riverside County residents
Author: Sarah Wilkins, Staff Writer
Cited: 
http://www.sandag.org/uploads/publicationid/publicationid_1310_7100.pdf 
(report in pdf)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

DRUG USE DOWN AMONG ARRESTED TEENS, REPORT SHOWS

SAN DIEGO COUNTY -- The number of juveniles arrested while under the 
influence of methamphetamines dropped by 11 percent in 2006 compared 
with the year before, reflecting an overall drop in illegal drug use 
by young people arrested in that period, according to a report 
released last month by the San Diego Association of Governments.

The 20th annual county survey, which tested 160 youths between the 
ages of 11 and 18 arrested during March and September of last year, 
showed that meth use dropped from 21 percent in 2005 to 10 percent last year.

Overall drug use fell from 55 percent in 2005 to 51 percent in 2006, 
which includes 1 percent drops in the use of marijuana at 43 percent, 
cocaine at 5 percent and opiates at 1 percent. PCP use remained the 
same at 1 percent; no increases of any kind were reported.

"The decrease in meth use for juveniles brings it back to other 
figures we've seen since 2000," said Cynthia Burke, director of the 
association's criminal justice research division. "Rather than a drop 
that was unlike other years, it suggests that the higher rate we saw 
in 2005 is not a trend at this point, which is obviously a positive."

Susan Bower, deputy director of alcohol and drug services for the 
county, said the number of teen meth users admitted into treatment 
programs also increased in 2005, though that number seems to have 
returned to "average" levels of about 25 percent.

According to Bower, the percentage of teens put into those programs 
who said they had any problem with meth went from 25 percent in 2003 
to 31 percent in 2004 to 34 percent in 2005 back down to 24 percent in 2006.

The reason for the reported drop is unclear, Bower said.

"There's a lot of theories, we just don't know what happened," she 
said. "We were not able to pinpoint exactly why, we really just look 
at '05 as pretty much an anomaly."

The survey also found that 94 percent of young meth users questioned 
think the drug is "extremely bad" or "very bad," despite their use of 
it. Comparatively, gateway drugs such as marijuana and alcohol were 
perceived as much less risky, at 30 percent and 38 percent, respectively.

The drop in meth use also contributed to a decrease in the use of 
multiple drugs, which fell from 18 percent in 2005 to 8 percent last 
year, Burke said.

"Most youth who test positive for drugs test positive for marijuana, 
and those who test positive for multiple drugs are most likely to 
also test positive for meth -- that is why a decrease in meth use is 
related to a similar decline in multiple drugs," she said.

The survey showed that youths who tried gateway drugs such as 
alcohol, tobacco or marijuana typically used more than one of the 
three, and 92 percent of those using multiple drugs had also used 
alcohol in the last 30 days. Statistics shows that the average age 
that youths start using drugs is 12.

Additionally, many of the youths reported dealing with other problems 
in their lives, such as running away, truancy, gang affiliation -- at 
58 percent -- as well as having parents with histories of substance 
use themselves, Burke said.

Likewise, when asked where they received information regarding drugs, 
only 15 percent of children 15 years or younger and 12 percent of 
teens 16 and older cited their parents. Children 15 and younger cited 
school as their main source, while teens 16 and older cited friends.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom