YOUNG AMERICANS' DRUG USE SPIKES

Painkillers Also Being Abused More

WASHINGTON -- Use of marijuana, cocaine and other illegal drugs increased
sharply among young Americans last year, according to a new government
survey. The study also found sharp increases in the nonmedical use of
prescription painkillers and tranquilizers. Only tobacco use declined.

John Walters, the director of the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy, attributed the increased marijuana use to "a fundamental
misunderstanding" propagated by the baby boomer generation that marijuana
is safe and should be legal.

"We have sent the wrong message and we have to correct that," Walters said.

"Marijuana is not some harmless chemical but a clear and present danger to
the health and well-being of all its users," said Tommy Thompson, secretary
of the Department of Health and Human Services.

The findings, contained in the 2001 National Household Survey on Drug
Abuse, are based on 70,000 interviews with people aged 12 and older.

The percentage that said they were marijuana users jumped to 5.4 percent in
2001 from 4.8 percent in 2000. The numbers had held roughly steady between
1996 and 2000. Cocaine users jumped to 0.07 percent from 0.05 percent.

The worrisome factor in the marijuana increase, according to Thompson, is a
spurt in first-time users last year, most of them under 18. The number --
about 2.4 million -- is down significantly from a mid-'70s peak of 3.2
million, but it's higher than in most of the 1990s.

Overall, 15.9 million Americans older than the age of 12 reported using an
illicit drug in the month before being interviewed for the survey.

That amounts to 7.1 percent of that population group in 2001 versus 6.3
percent in 2000. Nearly a fifth of 18- to 25-year-olds said they used
illicit drugs.

Among fashionable drugs, use of the hallucinogen Ecstasy and abuse of the
prescription painkiller Oxycontin have more than tripled since 1998. The
"good news," Thompson said, was a continuing decline in smoking among 12-
to 17-year-olds. Their number is about one-third lower than it was in 1997.

"We lost a lot of ground in the '90s," said Charles Curie, director of the
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the HHS agency
that sponsors the annual study. Curie blamed acceptance of marijuana and
peer pressure for the upsurge.

"When you start with marijuana, it is easy to get to the next step,"
Thompson said. The administration proposes to increase funding to anti-drug
use campaigns, community organizations and faith-based groups, he said.

A special committee of the Canadian Senate reached the opposite conclusion
in findings disclosed Wednesday. It concluded marijuana is less harmful
than alcohol and not a "gateway" drug that commonly leads users to more
serious narcotics.

According to the Canadian committee's report, criminalizing marijuana use
is "an utterly irrational restraint that has nothing to do with scientific
or public health considerations."