SURVEY MEASURES RISE OF BAD HABITS

Many New Yorkers owned up to smoking and drinking more after Sept. 11.
Results of a new survey put some numbers behind the anecdotes.

People living in neighborhoods near ground zero were randomly called
between Oct. 16 and Nov. 15 and asked how their drinking and smoking habits
had changed. The results of the telephone survey of 988 people conducted by
the New York Academy of Medicine were published this week in the American
Journal of Epidemiology.

Before the attacks, 4.4% said they used marijuana ; that number rose to
5.7% afterward. The week before Sept. 11, 22.6% of people surveyed said
they smoked cigarettes, compared with 23.4% who smoked after the attacks,
according to the study. And 59.1% drank alcohol before the attacks, while
64.4% drank after, the survey found.

Among smokers, 10% said they smoked an extra pack a week. Among drinkers,
20% had an extra drink a day. Marijuana users reported a 3.2% increase in
the amount of the drug they smoked. Glen R. Hanson, acting director of the
National Institute on Drug Abuse, said the information will help design
"more-effective substance-abuse treatment and prevention strategies for
individuals coping with severe stress." (Dow Jones Newswires)