YOUNG TEENS PREFER POT TO BOOZE, STUDY FINDS

Cigarette Smoking Down, So Is Condom Use

OTTAWA -- More 15-year-olds have tried marijuana than have
experimented with a night of drinking, a national survey of Canadian
teens shows.

Half of the boys and 40 per cent of girls in Grade 10 said they've
smoked pot, according to the 2002 survey released Tuesday and carried
out by Queen's University in partnership with Health Canada. This
represents a doubling of the rate since 1990 for boys, and a 16-point
increase for girls, up from 24 per cent.

It is also a reversal of the pattern in 1990, when the experience of
getting "really drunk" surpassed marijuana consumption.

Among 15-year old boys in 2002, 46 per cent reported being "really
drunk" at least twice, down from 48 in 1990. Girls in Grade 10 dropped
three points, from 45 to 42 per cent, according to the sweeping survey
about the health of young teens completed every four years since 1990.

George Smith, 18, is part of this culture shift. The first-year
student at the University of Guelph, in Ontario, first tried marijuana
in Grade 9, and became a regular pot smoker the following year. Today,
he still prefers smoking up to getting drunk, although less frequently
than as a 15-year-old.

Cigarette smoking has dropped off, especially among girls. The survey
found the percentage of Grade 10 girls who smoked daily decreased to
11 per cent in 2002, from 21 per cent in 1994. Boys' smoking dropped
from 16 to 15 per cent.

The 2002 survey also shows the percentage of young teens having sex
jumped among girls from 17 per cent in Grade 9 to 25 per cent in Grade
10, and 19 to 27 per cent among the boys. Fewer of the older students
reported using condoms. Among boys, condom use dropped from 73 per
cent in Grade 9 to 69 per cent in Grade 10. Sixty-eight per cent of
Grade 9 girls said their partners wore condoms, compared with 67 per
cent of Grade 10 girls.

"It is worrisome that they seem to be using condoms less often as they
get older," said William Boyce, director of Queen's Social Program
Evaluation Group and editor of the 156-page report.

The use of withdrawal for contraception increased. In Grade 9, 10 per
cent of sexually active boys said they used withdrawal. By the
following year, it jumped to 14 per cent. Among sexually active girls,
16 per cent in Grade 9 and 23 per cent in Grade 10 said they used withdrawal.

Girls continue to enjoy school more than boys, but the number of
students of both sexes who said they liked school "a lot" has been
dropping steadily since 1994. In the 2002 survey more than one-third
of both boys and girls aged 11 to 15 reported being bullied in the
past couple of months.

More than 7,000 students aged 11, 13 and 15 in Grades 6 to 10
completed the questionnaire in classrooms. These age groups were
included to capture the critical periods of early adolescent
development.