YOUTH DRUG USE UP SHARPLY IN LAST 8 YEARS, REPORT SAYS

WASHINGTON - Youth drug use in America increased sharply during the
eight years of the Clinton administration, according to figures in a
national report on drug policy to be released Thursday.

The sobering news comes at a time when the federal government has
committed huge amounts of money recently to fight the problem,
increasing funding to $19.2 billion this year from $13.4 billion in
1996, an average increase of more than $1 billion a year.

But Barry McCaffrey, director of the Office of the National Drug
Control Policy, will argue in a White House news conference that the
drug problem among youths in particular is getting better. To support
his position, he will cite a 21 percent overall decrease in use from
1997 to 1999, perhaps the first signs from a widely praised anti-drug
media campaign.

Still, drug use among those aged 12-17 was exactly the same in 1999
as it was in 1996, when Mr. McCaffrey became drug czar. In both
years, 9 percent of youths surveyed acknowledged using illegal drugs
within the previous month, according to the national survey. The
report, a copy of which was obtained by The Boston Globe, says that
in 1993, there were 3.3 million hard-core cocaine users and 694,000
heroin addicts. In 1998, there were 3.3 million cocaine addicts and
980,000 heroin addicts.