Just in case there was any doubt, the White House turned down a petition to legalize and regulate marijuana "in a matter similar to alcohol." Backers had submitted 75,000 signatures to the Obama administration's "We the People" project. That vaulted it to the top spot among petitions the White House promised a quick policy response to if enough signatures were received. The "We the People" project was the subject of a page one story in The Wall Street Journal last month. [continues 226 words]
President Fields Public Questions On Issues Including Economy And Debt Ceiling WASHINGTON - Barack Obama opened a White House "Twitter town hall" meeting by tweeting a question himself, becoming the first American president to issue one of the 140-character-maximum messages. The event was a logical move for a White House that already blogs and shoots its own video, distributing the material through social media sites such as Facebook and Flickr and avoiding the filter of newspaper and TV reporters. For just over an hour, the president answered questions submitted by the public through Twitter. The questions were selected by Twitter staff, who relied in part on an algorithm that measured which of thousands of proposed questions were most popular. [continues 390 words]
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Waiting to have sex is a nice idea, teenagers say, but they believe hardly anyone does it. Many teens, particularly boys, feel pressure to have sex, and they say drugs and alcohol often lead to sex -- often without condoms. The teen survey, released Monday by the Kaiser Family Foundation, paints a comprehensive portrait of youth attitudes about sex and the risk of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Teen pregnancy and birth rates have been falling for a decade -- a trend that other surveys have attributed to a drop in sexual activity and an increased use of condoms and other forms of birth control. [continues 542 words]
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Waiting to have sex is a nice idea, teenagers say, but they believe hardly anyone does it. Many teens, particularly boys, feel pressure to have sex, and they say drugs and alcohol often lead to sex - often without condoms. The teen survey, released Monday by the Kaiser Family Foundation, paints a comprehensive portrait of youth attitudes about sex and the risk of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Teen pregnancy and birth rates have been falling for a decade - a trend that other surveys have attributed to a drop in sexual activity and an increased use of condoms and other forms of birth control. [continues 542 words]
WASHINGTON - David Satcher doesn't mind telling Americans what they might not want to hear. As surgeon general, he's praised programs that give drug addicts clean needles to shoot up. He's said there's no evidence that teaching teens sexual abstinence by itself is effective. He's said Americans should learn to accept gays and lesbians for who they are. If the science is clear, he says, that's enough for him. And when the White House spokesman denounced his report on sexual health, he figured that just comes with the territory. [continues 827 words]
WASHINGTON -- Seven in 10 people who used illegal drugs in 1997 had full-time jobs, the government reports. Officials hope the data will dispel notions that most drug users are burned out and disconnected from the mainstream. "The typical drug user is not poor and unemployed," said Barry McCaffrey, the White House drug policy director. "He or she can be a co-worker, a husband or wife, a parent." About 6.3 million full-time workers, ages 18 to 49 -- or 7.7 percent -- admitted in 1997 using illegal drugs in the preceding month, according to the report issued every few years by the Department of Health and Human Services. The proportion has been steady since 1992. [continues 238 words]
WASHINGTON -- The number of Americans checking into treatment centers for heroin and other opiates has surpassed those seeking help for cocaine, the government reported on Wednesday, offering further evidence of heroin's spread. The rise is fueled by users who snort and smoke heroin -- proof, experts say, that these methods can be just as addictive as injecting the drug with needles. The number of treatment center admissions for heroin and other opiates rose by 29 percent -- up from 180,000 to 232,000 -- between 1992 and 1997, the report found. [continues 404 words]
WASHINGTON (AP) The number of Americans checking into treatment centers for heroin and other opiates has surpassed those seeking help for cocaine, the government reported Wednesday, offering further evidence of heroin's spread. The rise is fueled by users who snort and smoke heroin proof, experts say, that these methods can be just as addictive as injecting the drug with needles. The number of treatment center admissions for heroin and other opiates rose by 29 percent up from 180,000 to 232,000 between 1992 and 1997, the report found. [continues 708 words]
BY Laura Meckler, Associated Press WASHINGTON -- The number of Americans checking into treatment centers for heroin and other opiates has surpassed those seeking help for cocaine, the government reported Wednesday, offering further evidence of heroin's spread. The rise is fueled by users who snort and smoke heroin -- proof, experts say, that these methods can be just as addictive as injecting the drug with needles. The number of treatment center admissions for heroin and other opiates rose by 29 percent -- up from 180,000 to 232,000 -- between 1992 and 1997, the report found. [continues 443 words]
WASHINGTON -- The number of Americans checking into treatment centers for heroin and other opiates has surpassed those seeking help for cocaine, the government reported yesterday, offering further evidence of heroin's spread. The rise is fueled by users who snort and smoke heroin -- proof, experts say, that these methods can be just as addictive as injecting the drug with needles. The number of treatment center admissions for heroin and other opiates rose by 29 percent -- up from 180,000 to 232,000 -- between 1992 and 1997, the report found. [continues 663 words]
Survey Shows Reverse Of Trend Through 1990s - -- Teen drug use is beginning to creep down after climbing through the 1990s, the government reported Wednesday. An annual survey found that one in 10 teen-agers uses marijuana or other illegal drugs -- down from 1997 though still nearly double what it was in 1992. President Clinton and others called the results solid evidence that the nation had reversed course. "We have turned an important corner," he said. Clinton and others credited increased attention to the issue by government, communities, parents, media and schools. "The message is finally getting through," said Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala. [continues 678 words]
Survey: Numbers Had Climbed Throughout The '90s, But Officials Say Prevention Efforts Are Paying Off. Washington-Teen drug use is beginning to creep down after climbing through the 1990s, the government reported Wednesday. An annual survey found that one in 10 teen-agers uses marijuana or other illegal drugs - down from 1997 though still nearly double what it was in 1992. President Clinton and others called the results evidence that the nation had reversed course. "We have turned an important corner," he said. [continues 712 words]
WASHINGTON - Teen drug use is beginning to creep down after climbing through the 1990s, the government reported Wednesday. An annual survey found that one in 10 teen-agers uses marijuana or other illegal drugs -- down from 1997 though still nearly double what it was in 1992. President Clinton and others called the results solid evidence that the nation had reversed course. "We have turned an important corner," he said. Clinton and others credited increased attention to the issue by government, communities, parents, media and schools. "The message is finally getting through," said Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala. [continues 695 words]
WASHINGTON -- Heroin prices dropped in half from the late 1980s to mid-1990s, driving up use by addicts, a study finds. The results are significant because they suggest addicts are sensitive to price fluctuations, meaning drug policy that drives up prices could stem drug use even among hard-core users, said the study's author, Dr. Peter Bach, who did his work at the University of Chicago. "There's a lot of evidence that casual users are price-sensitive. The question is whether it affects hard-core users. Are hard-core users going to do whatever they need to do to get what they need?" said Bach, whose research is published in the May issue of the American Journal of Public Health. [continues 239 words]
WASHINGTON - Heroin prices dropped in half from the late 1980s to mid-1990s, driving up use by addicts, a study finds. The results are significant because they suggest addicts are sensitive to price fluctuations, meaning drug policy that drives up prices could stem drug use even among hard-core users, said the study's author, Dr. Peter Bach, who did his work at the University of Chicago. "There's a lot of evidence that casual users are price-sensitive. The question is whether it affects hard-core users. Are hard-core users going to do whatever they need to do to get what they need?" said Bach, whose research is published in the May issue of the American Journal of Public Health. [continues 239 words]
Surgeon general points to teen use, health risks WASHINGTON -- Cigars are as deadly as cigarettes and widely used by teenagers yet face virtually no federal regulation, government health officials said yesterday, recommending a mandatory national warning label for the first time. Requiring health warnings on cigarettes and smokeless tobacco but not cigars sends the wrong message, Surgeon General David Satcher said. "The absence of labels on cigars implies cigars are different and don't carry the same risk," Satcher said. Top officials at the Health and Human Services Department hope the report by its inspector general will push another agency, the Federal Trade Commission, to require such warning labels. The FTC has been considering the matter since April, but has yet to announce a decision. [continues 309 words]
WASHINGTON - Teenage use of alcohol, marijuana and other drugs remained stable for a second straight year after years on the rise, with younger teenagers even less likely to have used drugs over the past year, according to a government report being released today. The annual report offers a comprehensive look at drug, alcohol and cigarette use among 8th-, 10th- and 12th-graders. With a few exceptions, it paints an optimistic picture of American teenagers, according to a summary of the findings. [continues 246 words]
ATLANTA -- Decades after the civil rights movement forced America to confront racial inequities, disturbing disparities remain on one of the most basic human levels: Blacks get sick easier, stay sick longer and die sooner than whites. ``We have been -- and remain -- two nations: one majority, one minority -- separated by the quality of our health,'' said Secretary Donna Shalala, whose Department of Health and Human Services has launched a $400 million program to attack the problem. ``The time has come to stop accepting disparities with resignation.'' [continues 519 words]
WASHINGTON - Few 12-year-olds know how to buy marijuana or know someone who has used hard drugs. But that changes just one year later, according to a survey released today that suggests the transition from 12 to 13 is a critical time in the battle against teen drug use. Just as children are becoming more exposed to drugs, their parents are losing influence over their lives, argues the survey from Columbia University's National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse. [continues 329 words]
WASHINGTON ( AP) -- The nation's new surgeon general said Friday he is disappointed by the Clinton administration's decision to bar federal funding for AIDS-fighting programs that give clean needles to drug users. The administration said this week that science shows that such programs prevent the spread of HIV without increasing drug use. However, the White House decided against using federal money to support them, agreeing with those who say that buying needles for addicts sends the wrong message. Asked about the decision, Dr. David Satcher said that as a scientist he is "disappointed" any time resources are not available to fund effective programs. "We said very clearly that they do not increase drug use," he said in an interview Friday. "It would be great if we could do it without the political overtones." [continues 261 words]
