HEALTH OFFICIALS FIND MORE TEENS USING MARIJUANA

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. -- Marijuana is making a comeback among S.C. high
school students, opening the door for more serious substance abuse problems,
state health officials say.

Forty-five percent of the state's high school students had tried marijuana
at least once and 26 percent were regular users having smoked it within a
month of a 1997 study conducted by the University of South Carolina.

That is up from 27 percent smoking marijuana once and 12 percent smoking
regularly in the 1991 survey.

The 1997 figures are the latest available.

The state Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services released the
results of another study last week that showed teen-age access to tobacco
products is down even though the number of teen-agers who smoke is increasing.

Cigarette smoking can often be the gateway to other substance abuse
problems, said Dennis Nalty, the agency's research director.

He said 40 percent of high school cigarette smokers also use marijuana while
only 6 percent of nonsmokers use marijuana.

"Parents should have a massive wakeup call when they find cigarettes in
their kid's sock drawer," Nalty said. "It's a big risk factor."

Cigarette smoking is often the first step toward other risky behaviors
because smokers are usually more tolerant of drugs and alcohol, Nalty said.
He said 76 percent of smokers also use alcohol and more than half use some
type of illicit drug.

"If they make one choice it makes it easier to make other choices," said
Dick Vallandingham of the Beaufort County Alcohol and Drug Abuse Department.
"They move into a different set of social norms."

Health officials have a variety of answers to explain why cigarette and
marijuana use is on the rise.

They cite the resurgence in 1970s culture and the acceptance of drugs in
movies like "Trainspotting."

They also agree that cigarette and drug use is cyclical.

The anti-drug crusade of the 1980s was successful in reducing drug use, but
government officials grew complacent with the results, allowing drugs to
make a comeback, officials said.

Now, instead of all drugs being dangerous, students feel that only some are.

"Young people do not perceive marijuana and cigarettes as being as dangerous
as other illicit drugs like cocaine," Nalty said. "Their response is always,
`Hey, at least I'm not doing crack.' "

Teen-agers also tend to be more concerned with the present than with the future.

Baron Holmes, the state's Kids Count project director, said cigarettes and
marijuana have no immediate repercussions because the negative impacts are
usually felt later in life.

"Their perception of what all this means needs to be probed," Holmes said.
"What the (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) or the surgeon
general says doesn't play a very big role in their world. But
consequences begin to build up.

"Eventually, the evidence builds up that this is bad and they begin to back
off."