AGENCY SURVEY SHOWS DECLINE LAST YEAR IN DRUG USE BY YOUNG

WASHINGTON-- Drug use by young people declined from 1997 to 1998, the
Department of Health and Human Services said on Wednesday as it released the
results of its annual survey of drug abuse.

The Secretary of Health and Human Services, Donna E. Shalala, said: "While
it looks like we have turned the corner with today's report, we must not
rest. Too many young people are still using drugs, and we must continue to
build on our promising efforts to push the rate of drug use down even
further." Dr. Shalala said the findings, which were included in the 1998
National Household Survey on Drug Abuse and were based on interviews with
25,000 people, had shown that 9.9 percent of young people ages 12 to 17
reported last year that they had used an illegal drug in the 30 days before
the survey interviewed them, a sharp decrease from the 11.4 percent in 1997.
The three previous years had all shown lower levels of teen-age drug use,
according to the survey. The figures were 8.2 percent for 1994, 10.9 percent
for 1995 and 9.0 percent for 1996.

Eric D. Wish, director of the Center for Substance Abuse Research at the
University of Maryland, challenged the importance of the new figure. "They
are picking out one year, but it's been pretty stable, between 9 and 11
percent," Dr. Wish said.

He added that the findings among young people were made more dubious by the
fact that "minors are only interviewed after their parents have given their
consent and are typically in the vicinity."

Rob Stewart, a senior policy analyst at the Drug Policy Foundation, which
advocates a public health approach toward drug use instead of criminal
action, also said a single year's statistics do not give a valid picture of
drug use trends.

"The Administration says that we've turned the corner on youth drug use, and
we say no, absolutely not," Stewart said. "Drug use will continue to be a
problem. These trends in drug use fluctuate over time." Gen. Barry R.
McCaffrey, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control
Policy, said, "The fact that the numbers are best for the youngest, 12 to
17, group is a harbinger that use will continue to fall as this group grows
older."

Marijuana use was down among teen-agers, to 8.3 percent in 1998 from 9.4
percent in 1997, which the Department of Health and Human Services
acknowledged was not statistically significant.

The department has reported that marijuana use among teen-agers had ran from
a high of 14.2 percent in 1979 to a low of 3.4 percent in 1992. Other
findings of the survey about drug and alcohol use included these: * An
estimated 0.8 percent of Americans were current users of cocaine in 1998,
which was not statistically different from the 0.7 percent in 1997. The peak
response was 3 percent in 1985.

* There have been no statistically significant changes in the use of alcohol
since 1988, and in 1998, 52 percent reported current use. * The trend in
smoking among those ages 18 to 25 is up. It was 34.6 percent in 1994, 40.6
percent in 1997 and 41.6 percent last year. Joseph A. Califano Jr., who was
the domestic affairs adviser in the Johnson Administration and President
Jimmy Carter's Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, the predecessor
to Ms. Shalala's department, called the findings and others a mixed bag.

"There is some good news among kids, but there is also some bad news,
especially black kids and Hispanics," said Califano, who is president of the
Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. "We're
clearly not reaching them."

"I think part of this is that we still tolerate drug bazaars in Harlem,
Southeast Washington and South-Central Los Angeles. They would be wiped out
in five minutes if they popped up on the East Side, in Georgetown or in
Beverly Hills."

As to whether the statistics provided by the Federal Government were
reliable, Califano said: "These numbers understate drug use, alcohol and
smoking, but statisticians will say that you get the same level of
dissembling every year. As a trend, it's probably valid."