WHITE HOUSE DRUG CZAR WARNS PARENTS ABOUT POT

WASHINGTON - The nation's drug policy director warned parents Tuesday
against trivializing the dangers of marijuana to their kids, warning them
that more teens are addicted to pot than to alcohol or to all other illegal
drugs combined.

Many parents and children have outdated perceptions about marijuana, said
John Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. They
believe marijuana is not addictive, that it's less dangerous than
cigarettes or that it has few long-term health consequences.

In reality, more teens enter rehabilitation centers to treat marijuana
addiction than alcohol or all illegal drugs combined, Walters said.

"Our effort is to correct the ignorance that is the single biggest obstacle
to protecting our kids," he said as he announced an advertising campaign by
his office and 17 education, public health, anti-drug and family advocacy
groups.

"For too long, our nation's teens have been getting the wrong message about
marijuana. Youth popular culture has trivialized the real harm of marijuana
in kids," Walters said.

A common misperception is that smoking marijuana is less dangerous than
smoking a cigarette, said Surgeon General Richard Carmona. But marijuana
contains three to five times more tar and carbon monoxide than a comparable
amount of tobacco, he said. It also affects the brain in ways similar to
cocaine and heroin.

Carmona said that one out of five eighth-graders has tried marijuana -
twice as many who had tried it a decade ago.

Marsha Rosenbaum, director of the Safety First Project of the Drug Policy
Alliance, disputed some of Walters' figures. "What can he possibly be
talking about?" she said. "Alcohol dwarfs marijuana in terms of use. It's
true that half of high school students have experimented with marijuana,
but 80 percent have used alcohol."