REPORT SHOWS DROP IN TEENAGE DRUG USE

Teen drug use in Illinois and nationwide continued a three-year decline in
1999, according to a federal government report. But drug use overall
remained about the same.

Teen drug use locally and around the state mirrors the national situation,
said David Kirwin, head of Libertas, a drug and alcohol dependency
treatment program at St. John's Hospital in Springfield.

As is the case nationally, the major drugs of abuse among Illinois and area
teenagers are alcohol and marijuana, he said.

"It's very consistent with the patterns in the national report," Kirwin
said of local usage.

The report examined drug use last year among youths aged 12-17 years, among
young adults ages 18-25 years, and in adults 26 and older. It included use
of legal drugs such as cigarettes and alcoholic beverages as well as use of
marijuana and other illegal substances.

Nationwide, according to the federal researchers, 9 percent of youths ages
12-17 reported using illegal drugs in 1999, a decline from the 11.4 percent
who reported using illicit narcotics in 1997. "We now have a consistent
downward trend in drug use among teenagers that is very gratifying, U.S.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala said in a written
statement.

The number of teens between the ages of 12 and 17 smoking marijuana fell
from 9.4 percent nationwide in 1997 to 7 percent in 1999, according to the
report.

The HHS report also indicated that 10 percent of Illinois teens ages 12-17,
or approximately 99,000, reported using marijuana at least once in the
month before they were surveyed.

Among the state's youngsters that age, 11.9 percent, or 119,000, admitted
to binge drinking, defined as "drinking five or more drinks on the same
occasion on at least one day in the past 30 days."

Among youths ages 12-17, 17.6 percent, or 176,000, admitted smoking
cigarettes in the month prior to the one in which they were questioned for
the report.

Use of other illegal drugs such as cocaine, heroin and inhalants among this
age group in 1999 remained largely unchanged from previous years, according
to the report.

The highest rates of both legal and illegal drug use were seen in young
adults ages 18-25 in nearly all categories. Drug use falls off markedly at
older age levels.