RURAL TEENS USE DRUGS MORE THAN THEIR URBAN COUNTERPARTS, STUDY SAYS

WASHINGTON - Illegal drug use among adolescents in small-town and rural
America is reaching alarming proportions, according to a private study that
urged the government to spend as much money fighting drugs in
non-metropolitan areas as it does in foreign battlegrounds such as
Colombia.

Eighth-graders in rural America are 104 percent more likely than those in
urban centers to use amphetamines, including methamphetamines, and 50
percent more likely to use cocaine, according to the study by the National
Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.

Also, eighth-graders in rural areas are 83 percent more likely to use crack
cocaine, and 34 percent likelier to smoke marijuana than eighth-graders in
urban centers, the study said. It was released today at the U.S. Conference
of Mayors winter meeting in Washington.

"Bluntly put, meth has come to Main Street, along with other drugs and with
magnum force aimed at our children," said Joseph Califano Jr., president of
the research group. "It's time for all Americans to recognize that drugs
are not only an urban problem."

To help counter the trend, Califano called on the Clinton administration
and Congress to adopt a $1.6 billion "emergency aid" package to help fund
anti-drug efforts in rural America. Yesterday, Clinton proposed a two-year,
$1.6 billion aid package to Colombia, in part to assist with anti-drug
efforts there.

Clinton and Congress must match "dollar for dollar aid to Colombia with aid
to the rural communities," Califano said.

Califano's group used five different sets of data from public and private
anti-drug organizations and also studied data from state and local
law-enforcement agencies.

The study's results are frightening, said Susie Dugan, executive director
of Parent Resources and Information on Drug Education in Omaha, Neb.

"If the study's results are true, I'm not surprised," said Dugan, whose
group works in Omaha, a city of about 365,000 people, as well as outlying
rural areas. "Our kids today are thinking it's no big deal to use drugs.

"I would support any increase in all aspects of drug prevention - not just
interdiction, but prevention in rural areas too," she added. "We haven't
spent adequate amounts in prevention."

H. Brent Coles, mayor of Boise and co-chairman of the Conference of Mayors
Drug Control Task Force, said, "A coordinated effort among local, state and
federal governments will be essential to reduce both demand and supply and
finally turn the tide against drug abuse throughout America's big cities
and small towns."

The study also found that:

- - Eighth-graders in rural areas were 70 percent likelier to have gotten
drunk, and 29 percent likelier to drink alcohol.

- - Eighth-graders were more than twice as likely to smoke cigarettes, and
nearly five times likelier to use smokeless tobacco.

- - Among 10th-graders, use rates in rural areas exceeded those in large
urban areas for every drug except marijuana and the methamphetamine known
as ecstasy.

- - Among 12th-graders, use rates in rural America exceeded those in large
urban areas for cocaine, crack, amphetamines, inhalants, alcohol,
cigarettes and smokeless tobacco.

- - Adult drug use was about equal across communities of all sizes.