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. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom