TEEN DRINKING, DRUG USE LINKED WITH HIGH-RISK SEX

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Teenagers who drink or use drugs are much more likely
than others to be sexually active, starting sexual intercourse as early as
middle school and with a greater likelihood of multiple partners, a research
group said Tuesday.

With condom use among teens being erratic at best, there is a fear that the
combination of substance abuse and sex could increase the 12 million new
annual cases of sexually transmitted disease.

"In America, drinking and drug abuse are bundled with high-risk sex," said
Susan Foster, who directed the report "Dangerous Liaisons: Substance Abuse
and Sex" for the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia
University. "Yet despite the high coincidence of substance abuse and sexual
activity, remarkably few public or private prevention, treatment and
counseling programs deal with this connection."

In its report, gleaned from a variety of data on 34,000 teens in grades
seven to 12, the research center admits it's not sure what comes first --
the drinking and drug-taking or the promiscuity. In its analysis, the group
factored out other reasons -- such as socioeconomic status or race -- that
are associated with either drinking or having sex but not necessarily both,
and could have made the connection look weaker or stronger than it actually
is.

But the report suggests there could be some lessons from adults: Adult heavy
drinkers -- defined as about seven drinks a day over two weeks -- are five
times as likely as those who don't drink at all to have at least 10 sexual
partners a year.

Ben Smilowitz, a University of Connecticut freshman who often finds little
social life on campus beyond drinking parties, said his peers are turning to
drink not only because of stress, but also in imitation of adults.

"People see drinking as way of relaxing because that's what adults do,"
Smilowitz, 18, said. "You go to a football game or hockey and see adults
getting trashed."

He says more kids are drinking and therefore engaging in riskier behavior
all around.

The report said drug-using teens are five times as likely to have sex as
non-users, and three times as likely to have it with four or more partners,
according to the two-year analysis of data.

A generation ago, the report said, fewer teens were having sex. In 1970, 5
percent of 15-year-old girls had sex; in 1972, 20 percent of 15-year-old
boys said they had sex. In 1997, 45 percent of boys and 38 percent of girls
said they had had intercourse in their teen years.

The research group urged middle and high schools to create comprehensive
education programs that address the link between substance abuse and sex.

But students have a different view.

"When society tells kids don't have sex, don't drink, don't use drugs, it's
just creating forbidden fruit," Smilowitz said. "Society needs to re-examine
its way of dealing with kids."

The report was funded by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and the
Carnegie Corporation of New York. Besides data from the teens, the report
also relied on articles, expert interviews and examination of dozens of
prevention and treatment programs for substance abuse, sex and sexual
violence.