SOME TEENAGE DRUG RATES INCREASE IN COUNTY

While drug, alcohol and tobacco use is generally decreasing among Maryland
adolescents, in some categories--especially among high school
sophomores--substance use has risen among Howard youths, according to a
survey by several state agencies.

The percentage of Howard 10th-graders who said they have used marijuana
increased from 28 percent in 1996 to 40 percent in 1998; over those years,
usage statewide fell from 38 percent to 37 percent. Tobacco use among
Howard sophomores increased from 44 to 51 percent, and alcohol use
increased from 61 percent to 66 percent, while falling slightly across
Maryland during the same period.

In each of those categories, usage in Howard was 3 to 5 percentage points
higher than the state average. And more 10th-graders than 12th-graders
reported having smoked cigarettes or marijuana.

The news was not promising for Howard eighth-graders, either: More reported
having used cigarettes, alcohol and drugs in 1998 than in 1996, at a time
when cigarette and drug use fell overall in Maryland. Marijuana use
remained steady in Howard while decreasing slightly statewide.

The Maryland Adolescent Survey, conducted every other year by the state
Education, Transportation, and Health and Mental Hygiene departments, was
filled out anonymously in class by 22,140 students across the state, and by
1,455 students at 14 Howard schools, in December 1998.

The report contained some good news. Most notably, substance use declined
significantly among Howard 12th-graders, even more than it did across the
state. The number of seniors who reported having used cigarettes fell from
60 percent in 1996 to 51 percent in 1998; reported alcohol use fell from 79
percent to 69 percent; and other drug use fell from 55 percent to 44
percent. Statewide, those categories decreased by between 3 and 5
percentage points.

The share of 12th-graders who said they either drank and drove or rode with
someone who did declined as well.

Also, the percentage of Howard sixth-graders who said they have drunk
alcohol or smoked cigarettes decreased slightly, as it did statewide, and
reported marijuana use in the same age group fell while increasing slightly
across the state.

But if considering all drugs, not just marijuana, usage among sixth-graders
increased, from 5 percent to 7 percent.

School system officials said the county's drug education curriculum,
Stopping Abuse for Everyone, and other community initiatives are getting
the word out to sixth-graders.

"They're coming from elementary school with a real clear sense of the harm
substances can do," said Phyllis Utterback, Howard's supervisor of
assessment, who oversaw the survey.

Educators can also speculate about the decrease among 12th-graders,
suggesting that awareness increases with the obvious consequences of being
shut out of the prom and other events when they're caught drinking.

But while they have thoughts on why eighth- and 10th-graders are so likely
to use substances--the drop-off in the substance abuse curriculum (to
perhaps five to 10 lessons a year through ninth grade), easier access
through older peers and siblings, the quest for independence as kids pass
through middle school--educators interviewed said they do not have ideas
about why Howard's numbers are increasing so alarmingly in those age
groups, contrary to state trends.

They do think one key clue to addressing the issue came from survey
questions about family relationships. Statewide data revealed that children
who do not use alcohol and drugs are far more likely than students who do
use substances to have an adult at home who listens to their problems,
would worry if they were late coming home from school, eats meals with them
and talks to them about not using substances.

That is why the report presented to the Howard County Board of Education
about the survey suggests not only beefed-up drug education in the middle
schools, but also persuading more parents to communicate with their
children about substance abuse.

"My teachers hold the weight of the world on them, thinking they have to
solve this problem," said Linda Rangos, the county's instructional
facilitator for health education. "But it's a community problem."