STUDY SHOWS RURAL TEENS MORE LIKELY TO TRY DRUGS

Madrid, Ia. - Others may be befuddled, but Tiffany Kloster and Stephanie
Lawlor have no trouble believing a new national study that claims youths
like them are more likely to do drugs than their peers in big cities.

Look around town, the high school freshmen say. In the summer, teens get
together near the snow cone stand in the parking lot at the Tiger Bowl. In
the fall, their social lives revolve around the schedule of the football
team.

"Here in Madrid," Kloster says with a shrug, "I think about the coolest
place to hang out is the grocery store."

Researchers at Columbia University's National Center on Addiction and
Substance Abuse have gained a lot of attention nationally with their
landmark paper, "No Place to Hide." But in Iowa - a state that was of
specific concern to researchers because of its meth problem - the dramatic
findings don't jibe with the current thinking of some drug experts, police
and teachers.

Those hyping the study aren't just saying that rural America's drug problem
is similar to major metropolitan areas. The research, they say, shows that
it's worse - much worse among young teen-agers.

That strikes many as peculiar, in Iowa at least.

All Over the State

"I don't have anything to back this (study) up," said Janet Zwick, head of
the state Division of Substance Abuse. "What I'm hearing from treatment
centers is that the drug problem seems to be all over Iowa."

Peggy Fillio, principal at Indianola Middle School, was surprised as well.
"I don't want to be naive about it," she said. "I know we have students who
experiment, but do I think it's more than urban areas? Gee, I think that
would be a big perception shift for anyone."

Several of those who are concerned about Iowa's teen-age drug problem don't
dispute that drugs affect small towns just as profoundly as Manhattan. They
agree with the Columbia researchers that rural Americans need more law
enforcement and better access to treatment. Iowa has five residential
centers for youths.

State officials, meanwhile, say they don't know whether rural teens are
really more at risk. A new youth drug-use survey, due in the spring, should
provide more information about the differences in rural and urban settings,
they said.

Iowa Figures

The last time Iowa youths were polled about their drug use, in 1997, more
than half of students sampled in ninth, 10th, 11th and 12th grades said they
had used alcohol in the past month. About 3.5 percent said they had used
cocaine in the past month. For marijuana, the figure was 17.5 percent. The
study did not differentiate between youths in rural and urban counties,
Zwick said.

Worth Checking Out

Gene Lutz, director of the Center for Social and Behavioral Research at the
University of Northern Iowa, said the Columbia study is provocative and
worth a closer look.

"We've known for a long time that it's a mistake to think that rural life is
immune to the stuff that plagues urban areas. But whether there are worse
problems, that's another issue," he said. "We ought to invest the
appropriate amount of effort to find out if it's true in Iowa. It could help
in terms of planning."

The research drew from existing national data and was conducted under the
direction of former U.S. Health Secretary Joseph A. Califano Jr. Numerous
officials say it could have a significant effect on the disbursement of
federal grants.

Money Spent in Cities

Most of the nation's drug-fighting money is spent in urban areas, said Bruce
Upchurch, who runs the Governor's Alliance on Substance Abuse.

Some Iowa educators say the Columbia study's data just doesn't seem to apply
in Iowa.

Ames schools Deputy Superintendent Ray Richard, for one, is wondering where
so many rural youths would find crack cocaine.

"I have no sense of that," he said. "It just doesn't track with almost 30
years of involvement in education."

Art Pixler, principal at Perry Middle School, has similar impressions. "I'm
not naive enough to think we don't have some students who are experimenting
with everything. But I don't think that's the norm."

Susan Foster, vice president of policy research for the Columbia center,
said although the pools of kids in rural areas is smaller, the proportion of
drug-using teens there is larger. "I don't think it's skewed," she said.

No Safer

Madrid Police Chief Mike Gillette, meanwhile, said he's convinced that teens
in Boone County are no safer from drugs than those in Polk County, despite a
strict curfew and attempts to keep them busy.

Youths still don't have as much to do in small towns, and rural law officers
have their hands full, he said.

"This is Scotch tape and thumbtacks," he said, describing his own strapped
department. "Everybody's stretched really thin."

Rural drugs

Authors of the national study "No Place to Hide," released in January, say
Congress should spend $1.6 billion more to battle drug use and dealing in
America. The study, commissioned for the United State Conference of Mayors
and financed by the Drug Enforcement Administration, found that rural
eighth-graders in America are:

* 104 percent more likely to use amphetamines than their peers in large
cities.

* 83 percent likelier to use crack cocaine and 50 percent likelier to use
cocaine.

* 34 percent likelier to smoke marijuana.

* 29 percent likelier to drink alcohol and 70 percent likelier to get drunk.

* More than twice as likely to smoke cigarettes.