AFTER A TROUBLING RISE, TEEN DRUG USE DECLINES

But Increase Among Young Adults Results In No Significant Change Overall

Washington Post

Washington - Illicit drug use by American teenagers dropped sharply last
year, with about one in 10 youths now saying they currently use cocaine,
marijuana or other illegal drugs, according to a federal survey released
Wednesday.

Although illegal drug use across all age groups remained steady, the
decline in teen use marked a significant departure from what had been
nearly a decade-long rise in use among youngsters and was swiftly heralded
by Clinton administration officials.

"In the battle against illicit drugs, we've turned the corner," said Health
and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, who presented the findings at a
news conference with National Drug Control Policy Director Barry McCaffrey.

Shalala and other officials credited the drop to increased anti-drug
efforts on the part of parents, schools and the government. "The message is
finally getting through," she said.

According to the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, 9.9% of youths
ages 12 to 17 reported that they were using illegal drugs in 1998, compared
with 11.4% in the same age category the year before.

But Wednesday's report, which surveyed 25,500 Americans age 12 and older,
also found no substantial change in overall drug use across age groups.

The survey estimated that last year 13.6 million Americans, or 6.2% of the
population 12 or older, were current drug users - defined as those who had
used an illicit drug at least once in the 30 days before they were
interviewed for the survey. This did not represent a significant decline
from the estimated 13.9 million drug users in 1997, administration
officials said.

Overall drug use in the country remained level in large part because
increases among young adults ages 18 to 25 offset the drop among youths.
The survey estimated that 16.1% of young adults were current drug users
last year, up from 14.7% in 1997 and the highest level recorded in the 1990s.

Officials noted that this increase was consistent with a demographic bulge
of drug users who were teenagers in the mid-1990s. "If you don't affect
youth attitudes at ages 9 to 17, you put a bubble into the system and we
end up with rates of drug abuse downstream that are increased," said
McCaffrey. "We've got to affect our children in the middle school years and
the high school years."

According to the annual survey, drug use among 12- to 17-year-olds hit a
peak of 16.3% in 1979 and declined during the 1980s to reach a low point of
5.3% in 1992, the year President Clinton was first elected. Since then,
estimated current drug use by 12- to 17-year-old Americans has risen every
year except in 1996 and 1998.

This trend led some to discount the latest report's findings. "The truth is
that drug use trends fluctuate over time," said Rob Stewart, a senior
policy analyst at the Drug Policy Foundation, which has been critical of
the administration's anti-drug efforts.

A Milwaukee consultant agreed. "Any time we see such a long-standing trend
change, although it is a good thing, I think that it is premature to
predict the finding as a downward trend," said Michael McCafferty, a
consultant at the Milwaukee Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence.

Joseph A. Califano Jr., a cabinet secretary in the Carter administration
who is now president of the National Center on Addiction and Substance
Abuse at Columbia University in New York, also pointed to the "very bad
news" that "African-Americans and Hispanics are being savaged" by drug use.

One of the largest relative increases measured by the survey was in the use
of cocaine by Hispanics, which jumped from 0.8% in 1997 to 1.3% in 1998,
the highest level since 1992.

In addition to illicit drugs, the survey measured tobacco and alcohol use
among Americans. It estimated that 60 million Americans 12 or older - or
27.7% of the population - smoked cigarettes in 1998. That represented a
significant decline from the 1997 rate of 29.6% and the lowest rate of
cigarette smoking ever recorded, according to the survey.

Slightly more than half of all Americans 12 and older were current users of
alcohol in 1998, including 10.4 million who were age 12 to 20, the survey
said.

Kawanza Griffin of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.