TEEN ALCOHOL, DRUG USE IS DOWN, STUDY FINDS

Student Survey Finds Significant Decreases Among Eighth-graders

WASHINGTON - Smoking, drinking and drug use among eighth-graders has
fallen sharply in recent years, with marijuana use at its lowest level
since 1994 and half as many youngsters reporting that they use
cigarettes, according to a survey of students released Monday.

Monitoring the Future, an annual survey of eighth-, 10th- and
12th-graders done for the Department of Health and Human Services,
found declines in drug, alcohol and tobacco use for all age groups.

"Teen drug use is once again headed in the right direction - down,"
said John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy. "This survey confirms that our drug-prevention efforts
are working and that when we work together and push back, the drug
problem gets smaller."

The report, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, surveyed
44,000 students from 394 schools. They were asked about their
experiences and feelings about alcohol and drugs.

Lloyd Johnston, who directed the study by the University of Michigan
Institute for Social Research, said the findings among eighth-graders
are particularly heartening because children who say no to drugs,
smoking or alcohol early on carry that attitude into adulthood.

Government health officials credited campaigns to educate children
about the dangers of drugs with helping foster the decline.

Mr. Johnston said the terrorist attacks might also have contributed to
the falling numbers, particularly a decline in drinking this year
across all age groups.

'Sobering Effect'

"The tragedy of 9-11 had a sobering effect on the country's young
people," Mr. Johnston said. Despite the broad decline, teen use of
heroin, cocaine and steroids remained fairly steady this year. Among
high school seniors, there were slight increases in the use of
sedatives and tranquilizers. Crack use was up slightly among
10th-graders.

The most dramatic declines were seen in teen smoking.

Smoking rates for eighth-graders have been cut in half since 1996,
with teens who said they smoked in the last month falling from 21
percent to 10.7 percent. Among 10th-graders, the decline was almost as
large, and for high school seniors, the smoking rate fell by
one-quarter to one-third.

Mr. Johnston said many factors might explain the decline, including
higher tobacco prices, less cigarette advertising reaching young
people, and negative publicity about smoking and the tobacco industry.

He noted that the proportion of eighth-graders saying they prefer to
date people who don't smoke rose to 81 percent from 71 percent in
1996. The other grades saw similar increases.

"Taking up smoking makes a youngster less attractive to the great
majority of the opposite sex, just the opposite of what cigarette
advertising has been promising all these years," he said. "It may be
the most compelling argument for why they should abstain from smoking."

Awareness Growing

The survey found that teen use of "ecstasy," a synthetic drug that
became popular over the last decade at dance parties called raves,
began to decline significantly for the first time this year. All three
grades saw declines, but the biggest drop was among 10th-graders, with
the proportion of those teens reporting ecstasy use during the last
year falling from 6.2 percent to 4.9 percent. The researchers said one
reason for the decline is a growing awareness among teens about the
dangers of ecstasy, which has been linked to damage to the brain,
heart and kidneys.

Turnabout Possible

Mr. Johnston warned that the nation's focus on terrorism and a
possible with war with Iraq could lead to a reversal of the downward
trend. Drug use rose in the years after the 1991 Persian Gulf War,
when there was less emphasis on educating children about drugs, he
said. Among the other findings:

. The proportion of eighth-graders who said they used an illegal drug
in the last year fell to 17.7 percent, down from 19.5 percent the year
before and a high of 23.6 in 1996. Drug use over the last year among
10th-graders also fell since 2001 - from 37.2 percent to 34.8 percent
- - while use among high school seniors remained relatively steady about
41 percent.

. The proportion of eighth-graders who said they used marijuana in the
last year fell to 14.6 percent, the lowest rate since it was 13
percent in 1994 and well below a peak of 18.3 percent in 1996.

. The survey studied abuse of the prescription painkiller OxyContin
for the first time and found that 1.3 percent of eight-graders, 3
percent of 10th-graders and 4 percent of 12th-graders reported using
the drug in the last year.