JOHNSTON FIGHTS IN WAR ON DRUGS

Lloyd Johnston has studied teen drug abuse for more than 30 years,
and said America's battle against drugs isn't lost, but it is still
far from won.

Johnston, a founder of the decades-long "Monitoring the Future" teen
drug-use study, began monitoring the drug-use patterns of graduating
high school seniors under President Richard Nixon's administration.

It was the Nixon administration that coined the phrase "War on Drugs."

"It's a metaphor that doesn't work very well. It's an ongoing
struggle," Johnston said from his lakeside Hamburg Township home.

"It's not a war you can ever win. It's a little like turning a
battleship -- it's a slow process," he added.

While the nation's drug policy is shaped in Washington, D.C.,
Johnston has delivered vital information on the epidemic from Ann
Arbor for 33 years.

He began studying teenage drug use while a psychology graduate
student at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Johnston worked with colleague Jerald Bachman to pitch the project to
Nixon drug czar Robert DuPont.

DuPont, who read Johnston's 1973 book, "Drugs and American Youth,"
secured federal funding for the project through the National
Institute on Drug Abuse.

Today, Johnston runs the program at the U-M Institute for Social
Research, often considered the nation's top drug researcher.

"That's why I stayed in Michigan. This was the best I could do here
in the Midwest," he said.

The study is in its 33rd year and has been fueled by $120 million in
grant funding -- most recently receiving $33 million through the
institute to continue the work through 2012.

In December, President George W. Bush credited the study with a
reported reduction of 860,000 students using drugs over the previous six years.

The nationwide project takes researchers to more than 400 sites all
over the country, and acquires data from some 50,000 students.

The study has followed high school seniors' patterns of drug use,
behaviors and experiences into adulthood since 1976.

The study also tracks whether students go to college, get married or
are employed. Right now, the study is tracking participants as old as 50.

Johnston has appeared as an expert on several programs, including an
NBC special and other television networks as well as on National Public Radio.

He's had opportunities for an administrative post, but decided to
dedicate his career to research. Johnston realized his work would
span decades and presidential administrations; therefore, his work
had to be as politically neutral as possible.

Over the years, Johnston, originally from New England, hasn't become
discouraged. He has, however, seen a variety of changes and trends
among youth in grades 8-12 during his career.

One of the common emerging patterns he's seen has been new drugs
emerging among different generations.

For example, the country's original drug epidemic among youth peaked
around 1980, and was followed by a decline in teen drug use, including alcohol.

That was followed by what Johnston calls a "relapse" of drug use in
1992, which he labeled an epidemic that lasted about five years.
During that time, there was a considerable increase in the use of
most drugs among youth, most notably cigarette smoking.

The multimillion-dollar tobacco settlement soon drew mass attention
to teenage smoking, which Johnston said was a catalyst for a major
decline in smoking since the mid-1990s.

"That, I think, was a major factor in what then turned out to be
(the) big decline in smoking we've seen roughly over the past 10
years," he said.

"That's been a big change -- and certainly one from the standpoint of
health," he added.

Overall, there was an increase in adolescent drug use in the 1990s,
and their drug consumption involved other drug forms as they became
young adults, he said.

These days, youth are more likely to take up drinking, smoking
cigarettes and consumption of prescription drugs than take illicit
drugs, Johnston added.

In other words, the cycle of drug use continues.

"There will always be new drugs arriving on the scene, just as there
have been in the past," said Johnston. "I don't see this problem going away."