STUDY FINDS TEENAGE DRUG USE HIGHER IN U.S. THAN IN EUROPE

American teenagers are far more likely than their European peers to use
marijuana and other illicit drugs, but European teenagers are more likely
to smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol, according to a study of 31 nations.

The study, released yesterday at a meeting of the World Health Organization
in Stockholm, compared the results of 1999 surveys answered anonymously by
14,000 10th-grade students in the United States and 95,000 10th-grade
students in 30 European countries.

Among the European students, 37 percent had smoked at least one cigarette
in the previous 30 days, compared with 26 percent in the United States.
Sixty-one percent of the European 10th graders had consumed alcohol in the
previous 30 days, compared with 40 percent of the students in the United
States.

Forty-one percent of 10th graders in the United States had tried marijuana,
compared with 17 percent of those in Europe. And 23 percent of the students
in the United States had used other illicit drugs, compared with 6 percent
of Europeans.

Researchers said that the study, the first to make such broad comparisons,
would help them and policy makers determine the effects of culture and
other factors on drug use.

"We tend to think within national boundaries," said Thor Bjarnason, a
sociologist at the State University of New York at Albany and a co-author
of the report, the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Drugs. "If
you're having a war on drugs, one measure is within a comparative
perspective. If drug use is increasing at a slower rate in your country,
that could be a victory."

The study was developed by the Council of Europe, an intergovernmental
organization focused on social and economic issues, with the help of
researchers at the University of Michigan's "Monitoring the Future"
project, which has surveyed students on a variety of issues for 26 years
and is considered the most reliable barometer of student drug- use trends.
The European survey was designed in such a way so the two could be
accurately compared.

Dr. Bjarnason called the differences in illicit drug use "very striking."

"That's one in four students in this country," he said. "Even in the
European countries with the highest rates, it's only one in 10."

Yet while a smaller percentage of European students used illicit drugs,
that percentage rose from 1995 to 1999, particularly in former Eastern-bloc
countries.

By contrast, much drug use in the United States has declined or held steady
— with the exception of Ecstasy use, which has risen sharply.

Researchers offered little analysis to explain the differences. That, they
said, would come in the second phase of the study.

But, they noted, the widespread use of marijuana and other illicit drugs
began in the United States and spread to Europe so it might be that
Europeans simply follow the American trend.

Others cited the more relaxed rules governing alcohol and cigarette use in
many European nations, as well as other cultural differences.

Researchers said they were particularly interested in the survey results of
marijuana use in the Netherlands, known for its relatively permissive drug
laws.

While marijuana use was relatively widespread there — 28 percent of 10th
graders had tried it, compared with the European average of 17 percent —
four other European countries, Ireland, France, the Czech Republic, and
Britain, had higher rates, as did the United States.