COLORADO AMONG WORST FOR DRUG, ALCOHOL ABUSE

Feb. 5 - Rocky Mountain highs are killing Coloradans.

"A wide range of indicators show Colorado has one of the worst alcohol
problems in the country," Harvard Medical School researcher Dr. William
McAuliffe said this week at a forum on substance abuse at Fort Logan
sponsored by the Alcohol and Drug Division of the state Department of Human
Services.

On an alcohol problem index, Colorado is second only to New Mexico,
McAuliffe said. McAuliffe also said Colorado ranks:

Third in alcohol mortality.

Third in percentage of residents who are drug dependent.

Fourth in need of substance abuse treatment programs.

Yet Colorado is 25th in federal funding for alcohol treatment, said Janet
Wood, director of the state's Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division.

Wood said no one is sure why substance abuse is so high here, but "overall,
we have a younger demographic population."

"We also have a high tourism rate," Wood said. She noted that the highest
rate of substance abuse in the state was in its northwest sector, which
includes Mesa County, Vail and Aspen.

"Finally we've got major interstates - I-70 and I-25 - which bring drugs
into the state. They have to have an effect," Wood said.

Considering drug use alone, Colorado doesn't look so bad. The state is 15th
worst on the drug problem index, McAuliffe said. New York is No. 1, while
North Dakota's rate is practically zero.

In Colorado and nationwide, drug and alcohol abuse is on the decline as
baby boomers age.

However, abuse rates among young people generally are increasing.

Heroin use has stabilized among adults older than 35, but young whites are
using it more and more, "a cause for concern," said Bruce Mendelson,
manager of Colorado Treatment Needs. Because purity has doubled, heroin
death rates are way up - from 26 opiate-related deaths in 1990 to 135 in 1998.

Methamphetamine use has increased in the 18-to-35 age bracket and among women.

Colorado teens generally have a higher rate of drug abuse than their
national counterparts - 11.9 percent of Colorado eighth-graders surveyed in
1998 had used marijuana sometime in the 30 days prior to the poll, compared
to 9.7 percent of eighth-graders nationwide; 2.8 percent of Colorado
12th-graders surveyed reported cocaine use in the prior 30-day period,
compared to 2.4 percent of 12th-graders nationwide.

Surveying students may result in an under-reporting of teen drug use
because teens who abuse drugs often drop out and aren't included in polls,
Denver Public Schools officials said after the conference.

Teen use of rave and "club drugs" seems to be on the decline except for
"roofies," a slang term for Rohypnol, Mendelson said.

Rohypnol, also known as the "date rape drug," can impair a victim for eight
to 12 hours and cause individuals not to remember what they experienced
while under the drug's effect.