TEEN DRUG STATS IN A STATE OF CONFUSION

Delaware teenagers use illicit drugs at a higher rate than their peers in
any other state, one recent federal study said.

Teens here use drugs at a lower rate than other American high school
students, another federal survey said.

Teenage drug use is about average compared with the rest of the country, a
third study said.

So which is it?

The answer: All of them -- sort of.

Parents of teenagers are bombarded with drug-use studies, and it can be
difficult to understand their children's true risk of drug abuse, said
Steven S. Martin, a scientist with the University of Delaware's Center for
Drug and Alcohol Studies.

"It's not a cut-and-dried number," Martin said.

All of those conclusions -- from studies by the federal Department of
Health and Human Services, the federal Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention and the UD center -- have some validity and value, Martin said.

The bottom line is that parents should be concerned about their children
using any drug in any quantity, including alcohol and tobacco, Martin said.

"You should be scared about it," Martin said. "Not that Delaware parents
should be any more scared than parents in the rest of the country."

The most recent indicator, in early September, said Delaware's teen-age
drug use was the highest in the country.

The National Household Survey on Drug Abuse by the federal Department of
Health and Human Services said 18.3 percent of Delaware teens had used
illicit drugs in the past month.

That figure was the highest in the country and well above the national
average of 9 percent.

Federal officials said they stand behind the validity of the numbers. This
was the first year the study included a state-by-state breakdown.

But the figure was based largely on a statistical model and on real
interviews with just 348 Delaware teens, ages 12 to 17.

Edward Ratledge, director of UD's Center for Applied Demography and Survey
Research, said the survey's methods are sound but the result should be
viewed with caution.

Because the conclusions are based on a sample, the true figure could be
anywhere from 14.3 percent to 22.9 percent. The lower figure is below
numbers for 22 other states and matches those of two other states. Thus,
usage in Delaware actually could rank somewhere near the middle of the
states, Ratledge said.

Also, the figure is even more susceptible to error because only 51 percent
of the Delaware households contacted for the survey agreed to participate,
he said.

Other response rates ranged from a high of 78.2 percent in Mississippi to a
low of 49.8 percent in Massachusetts. A low response rate means the sample
is less likely to represent the whole population.

Martin said looking at the breakdown of "illicit drugs" in the survey
provides more insight into the results. The survey asked teens about their
use of marijuana and their use of all drugs other than marijuana.

The survey found 5.9 percent of Delaware teens used drugs other than
marijuana within the past month, almost equal to the national average of
5.3 percent.

But 14.5 percent of Delaware teens said they used marijuana within the past
month, well above the national average of 7.9 percent. That figure skewed
the rate of overall drug use, Martin said.

So Delaware teens have a big marijuana problem?

Actually it's probably not much bigger than the average, Martin said.

The Centers for Disease Control surveys students in grades 9 through 12
each year for its Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey. That study
includes almost 2,200 Delaware teens and is more accurate than the National
Household Survey, Martin said.

Its 1999 survey showed Dela-ware teens to be about average for marijuana
use, with about 49 percent saying they have used marijuana and 29 percent
saying they had used it within the past month.

The national averages are 47 percent and 27 percent, respectively.

The agency's survey also asked about cocaine and heroin use. Delaware
students said they use cocaine less than the national average -- 7.2
percent said they have used cocaine, compared with 9.5 percent of teens
nationally.

And 3.3 percent of Delaware teens said they have used heroin at least once,
compared with 2.4 percent of teens nationally.

The federal survey did not ask about monthly heroin use. Martin's center,
however, has posed the question annually to fifth, eighth and 11th graders
in Delaware.

Less than 1 percent of students said they used heroin monthly.

The 1999 CDC study ranked Delaware below most other states for cocaine use.
That study ranked Delaware 14th out of 33 states for heroin use among high
school students and eighth for marijuana use.

Health officials say the numbers are most helpful in tracking drug use from
year to year to spot trends.

Nationwide, the Health and Human Services survey found drug use among
teen-agers had fallen to 9 percent, down from 9.9 percent in 1998 and 11.4
percent in 1997.

Since it was the first year state-by-state numbers were available, the
survey did not show whether drug use in Delaware had risen or fallen in
recent years.

Kevin Brown, executive director of the Addiction Coalition of Delaware,
said no matter where Delaware ranks in teen-age drug use surveys, the
community should be concerned by the continued abuse of drugs all the
surveys reveal.

"How many indicators do we need to see?" Brown said.