MORE TEENS GETTING HIGH ON LEGAL DRUGS, SURVEY FINDS

Abuse of Painkillers, Cold Medicine Rises

Federal officials are concerned that teenagers are abusing
prescription medications and over-the-counter cold remedies even as
their illegal drug use continued a decade-long decline in 2006,
according to a government survey released yesterday.

Illegal drug use by teenagers has fallen 23 percent since 2001, but
their use of prescription narcotics, tranquilizers and other
medicines remains at relatively high levels, government investigators said.

What's more, researchers for the first time asked whether teens were
using cough or cold medicines to get high and found reason for
concern there too.

Such over-the-counter medicines often contain the cough suppressant
dextromethorphan, which alters mood and consciousness when consumed
in high doses and can cause brain damage or death, officials said.

About 1 in 14 12th-graders, or 7 percent, said they had taken such
medicines to get high in the past year. Among eighth-graders, the
figure was 1 in 25, or about 4 percent.

"This is now an area of drug abuse that we need to pay more attention
to," said Lloyd D. Johnston, the University of Michigan researcher
who led the annual "Monitoring the Future" survey for the federal
government. "My guess is that young people do not understand the
dangers of abusing these drugs."

Prescription drugs also were a problem, officials said. After rising
steadily since 2002, the percentage of 12th-graders who said they
used the highly addictive painkiller OxyContin in the past year fell
from 5.5 percent to 4.3 percent -- still considered unacceptable high
by officials.

Use of another popular narcotic, Vicodin, more or less has held
steady since 2002, with 9.7 percent of 12th-graders, 7 percent of
10th-graders and 3 percent of eighth-graders saying they used it to
get high in the past year.

"If there is one thing that every adult can do today to help protect
young people against prescription drugs, it is go to your medicine
cabinet, take those prescription drugs you are finished using and
throw them away," said John P. Walters, director of the Office of
National Drug Control Policy. "If you have teens in your house,
remove this hazard today."

Despite such concerns, Walters sad the news from the survey was good,
showing continued long-term declines in teenagers' use of marijuana
and alcohol and alcohol.

For instance, about 32 percent of high school seniors said they had
used marijuana in the past year, the lowest figure since since about
31 percent said so in 1994. Regarding drinking, about 30 percent of
12th-graders said they had been drunk in the month before taking the
survey, down from a 15 year high of 34 percent in 1997. Among
eighth-graders, about 6 percent said they had been drunk in the past
month, compared with about 10 percent in 1996.

Cocaine use dipped slightly among eighth- and 10th-graders in 2006,
with 2 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively, saying they had used
the drug in the past year. But it rose slightly among 12th-graders,
to 5.7 percent from 5.1 percent.

Walters warned that downward trends do not always endure.

"We've had in the past a tendency to take our eye off the ball," he
said. "We want to continue this decline, and that requires us to stay at it."

The annual government-funded survey, in its 32nd year, tapped the
experiences of 48,500 eighth-, 10th- and 12th grade students in 410
public and private schools nationwide.