HUGE JUMP REPORTED IN USE OF ECSTASY BY ONTARIO STUDENTS

Consumption of hallucinogens skyrockets, matching or surpassing levels of
the 1970s

Use of ecstasy among Ontario students has jumped eightfold since 1993,
and the use of hallucinogens in general is now greater than at the
height of hippie culture.

Almost 5 per cent of students in Grade 7 to 13 now report that they
have used the drug in the previous year, according to a new study. And
one in five adolescents, even in the younger age group, say they have
been to a rave, where use of ecstasy is fashionable, in that same time
period. (Ecstasy is an amphetamine-based hallucinogen.)

"In general, the use of hallucinogens has skyrocketed," Angela Paglia,
a research associate at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health,
said yesterday in an interview. "The levels of hallucinogen
consumption have matched or surpassed those of the 70s, when many of
these kids' parents were teenagers," she said.

The research is featured in today's edition of the Canadian Medical
Association Journal in a special issue on substance abuse.

It reveals that 13.6 per cent of junior high and high school students
use the hallucinogenic drugs mescaline or psilocybin (magic
mushrooms), up from 3.1 per cent in 1993. Use of LSD has remained
steady at 6.5 per cent.

Ms. Paglia said there appear to be three principal reasons why drug
use is on the rise among young people: a decreased perception of risk,
decreased moral disapproval and increased availability.

She added the numbers indicate that education strategies are
failing.

"Kids today are really media savvy. Pop culture has a pretty strong
hold on them and they don't seem to believe the messages they are
hearing elsewhere," she said. "They also notice the hypocrisy
surrounding drug use, particularly when it comes to smoking and alcohol."

In fact, Ms. Paglia said that while the rate of illicit-drug use is
rising rapidly, one cannot lose sight of the fact that the "vast
majority of kids, 60 or 70 per cent, don't use illicit drugs at all."

The same is not true of legalized drugs like tobacco and alcohol. The
abstention rate is 26.8 per cent among students.

Two-thirds of teenagers surveyed said that they had taken a drink in
the past year, a rate that is up 19 per cent since 1993.

Similarly, despite widespread public health campaigns, teenage smoking
is up 16 per cent in the 1990s, with 28.3 per cent of those surveyed
saying they smoke.

The good news, from a public health perspective, is that school
children appear to be delaying the age of experimentation with drugs.
For example, 5 per cent of students said they began smoking in Grade 4
(about age 9), down from 7 per cent in the 1997 survey, and 16 per
cent in 1981. Similarly, only 2 per cent of students said they began
smoking cannabis by Grade 6 (about age 11), down from 5 per cent in
1997 and 8 per cent in 1981.

Overall, however, cannabis use continues to gain in popularity with
teenagers. According to the research by the Centre for Addiction and
Mental Health, 29.2 per cent of students said they smoked marijuana in
1999, compared to 12.7 per cent who said in 1993 that they had smoked
it in that year.

The numbers are derived from a study that has been going on since
1977.

The Ontario drug-use survey sends questionnaires to students in Grades
7, 9, 11 and 13, and the 1999 research included 4,894 students in 111
schools.

An unrelated article in the CMA Journal revealed that 6.8 per cent of
Canadians used marijuana in the previous year for "non-medical
reasons," while another 1.9 per cent used the drug for medical
reasons: to treat the symptoms of HIV-AIDS, cancer, glaucoma and
psychiatric conditions.

A third study, by Dr. Eric Single, research associate at the Canadian
Centre on Substance Abuse, estimated that misuse of alcohol, tobacco
and illicit drugs accounts for one in five deaths in Canada and 9.4
per cent of all hospital admissions.

DRUG USE

Percentage of Grade 7 to Grade 13 Ontario students reporting
non-medical use of drugs in 1993 and 1999.

1993 1999

Tobacco 23.8 28.3

Alcohol 56.5 65.7

Cannabis 12.7 29.2

Glue 1.6 3.8

Other solvents 2.3 7.3

Hallucinogens 3.1 13.6

Cocaine 1.5 4.1

Crack 1.0 2.3

Ecstasy 0.6 4.8

Source: Canadian Medical Association Journal