TEEN DRUG USE FALLS AFTER RISING THROUGH 1990s

WASHINGTON - Teen drug use fell last year, with about one in 10
teen-agers using marijuana and other drugs, the government reported
today. Officials say it's solid evidence that the nation has turned a
corner after rising drug use through the mid-1990s.

Overall, drug use among Americans of all ages remained level, but use
among young adults continued its steady rise, according to the annual
household survey of 25,500 people ages 12 and up.

All told, 78 million Americans had tried illegal drugs at some point
in their lives. Marijuana remained far and away the most popular drug,
but 41.3 million Americans also had tried another heroin, cocaine or
some other illegal drug, the survey said.

Of them, 13.6 million were current users, about half what it was at
its 1979 peak.

The survey results were released today by Health and Human Services
Secretary Donna Shalala and Barry McCaffrey, President Clinton's drug
policy adviser.

The National Household Survey on Drug Abuse also measured cigarette
smoking and found it down to 27.7 percent overall, the lowest rate
recorded. But smoking remained steady among teens and continued to
rise among young adults. Cigar use edged up.

The survey is most carefully watched as a gauge of teen drug
use.

It found 9.9 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds had used some sort of
drugs within the past month, down from 11.4 percent in 1997. A second
government survey, which uses a different method to measure teen drug
use, has found that drug use was stable over the past two years after
years on the rise.

``It looks like we have turned the corner with today's report,''
Shalala said in a statement.

``We can really say we're making progress,'' a Clinton administration
official said Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity. Earlier
reports signaling a leveling off of teen drug use have been greeted
with cautious optimism, but the official said researchers were now
confident that the nation had ``turned a corner.''

The portion of teens saying they had ever used drugs was also down,
from 18.8 percent in 1997 to 16.4 percent last year.

The declines were driven by older teens -- those ages 16 and 17 --
with the percentage having used drugs in the past year falling from
30.7 percent to 26.8 percent.

Marijuana -- the most popular drug -- tends to fuel the overall rate,
though its usage has fluctuated over the past few years. Last year it
fell to 8.3 percent among teens, back to its 1995 level and still
significantly higher than the 3.4 percent recorded in 1992.

Overall, teen drug use rose through much of the 1990s and is still
much higher than it was in 1991 and 1992. Researchers attribute the
rise to a relaxing of the intense prevention efforts of the 1980s.

Today's news was not as good for young adults aged 18 to 25. The
survey found 16.1 percent of them were ``current users,'' meaning they
had used drugs in the past month. That rate has been gradually rising,
up from 13.3 percent in 1994.

In particular, cocaine use was up, from 1.2 percent in 1997 to 2
percent in 1998.

Officials suspect that the rising statistics relate to this particular
group of people -- the same people who were more likely to use drugs
when they were teen-agers, who have now become young adults.

Overall, drug use among all ages remained level in 1998, with 13.6
million current users. That's 6.2 percent of the population,
statistically unchanged from 6.4 percent in 1997.

But the rates have increased among minority groups. The percent of
blacks currently using drugs jumped from 5.8 percent in 1993 to 8.2
percent last year. Hispanics saw a similar rise, from 4.4 percent to
6.1 percent over those five years.

Teen and adult drug use is driven largely by use of marijuana, which
attracts nearly twice as many users as cocaine, heroine, LSD and other
drugs combined.

Overall use of marijuana was steady in 1998, with about 11 million
Americans smoking it in the month preceding the survey.

Other findings from the survey:

- --Heroin: A total of 130,000 people were currently using heroin,
double the number in 1993. And the age of users was dropping. In
1997, the typical heroin user was 17.6 years old the first time they
tried it, down from 18.3 percent in 1996.

- --Cocaine: The number of users was stable in 1998, with about 1.75
million, though there were increases among teens and young adults.

- --Cigarettes: Some 60 million Americans age 12 and up said they
were current smokers, down from 29.6 percent in 1997. Among
young adults, the percentage has steadily increased from 34.6 percent
in 1994 to 41.6 percent last year.

- --Cigars: Use increased to 6.9 percent last year from 5.9 percent in
1997.