TESTING POSITIVE

Reduced Drug Use Shows Teens Getting The Message

Check the impulse to jump for joy.

Yes, teen drug use is down.

Yes, teens are saying they were influenced by a national media
campaign aimed at highlighting the dangers of marijuana.

Use declined 11 percent over the past two years, according to the 2003
Monitoring the Future Survey recently released by U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson and John Walters,
director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

The survey has been measuring drug use by 12th-graders since 1972. In
1991, eighth- and 10th-graders were added to the report.

In what is both encouraging and cautionary, students at all three
grade levels said they had seen anti-drug ads and credited them for
heightening their awareness of the risks. Carefully crafted messages
from groups like the Partnership for a Drug Free America gave them the
information they needed to make rational choices at what is often an
irrational age.

That's a positive message that demonstrates how important media
messages are and how receptive teens can be.

But the quest for altered states of consciousness did not
disappear.

Use of inhalants - glue, aerosols, paint thinner and nail-polish
remover - was up 14 percent among eighth-graders. Those substances,
which can cause brain damage and death, are easy to obtain and
relatively cheap.

Meanwhile, abuse of prescription drugs was up among older
students.

OxyContin was used by 4.5 percent of high school seniors, and 10.5
percent of those students reported using another pain medicine,
Vicodin. Both drugs have addictive potential.

Clearly there is more work to do. Media messages work. But they can't
be the only anti-drug messages children hear. Parental warnings about
the dangers of substance abuse remain the most important influence on
behavior, Walters says.

Parents can order a free pamphlet, Keeping your Kids Drug-Free, and
find other information at www.theantidrug.com or by calling
1-800-788-2800.

Encouraging news about the reduction in some drug use by teens shows
the real potential of positive messages - from the media, and
especially from parents.