KEEP MOMENTUM ON DRUG PREVENTION

There is good news for those who care about young people: a new government
report shows the use of alcohol, marijuana and other drugs by teens remained
stable for a second year after years of an upward trend.

But the task of turning kids away from illicit substances is far from
complete.

The positive trend demonstrated in a government report has been incremental
and, as U.S. drug czar Barry McCaffrey points out, signals that a long road
lies ahead.

The survey, conducted for the government by the University of Michigan's
Institute for Social Research, found a drop in the number of eighth- and
10th-graders reporting the use of any kind of illegal drug.

For example, 35 percent of 10th-graders said they'd used drugs during the
past year, a decrease from 38.5 percent in 1997. Similarly, use among
eighth-graders in the same period dropped to 21 percent from 23.6 percent.

Use of marijuana, the most popular drug, fell among 10th-graders, with less
than 40 percent acknowledging they'd smoked pot.

Also reason for optimism is the finding that more young teen-agers believed
there was a "great risk" in trying marijuana once or twice, up to 28.1
percent from 25.3 percent among eighth-graders. Forty-five percent of them,
meanwhile, associated great risk with occasional pot smoking, also up from
1997.

But the part of the study that surely worries McCaffrey concerns these same
young teen-agers.

The report said there was an increase in the number of eighth-graders who
had tried crack or cocaine. The numbers are small — 3.2 percent tried it,
while 2.1 percent used it in the past year — but, nonetheless, they are a
red flag.

So, too, is the finding that fewer eighth-graders said they disapproved of
people taking LSD or felt great risk arising from LSD use.

"Our commitment must be to continuing to make progress through a 10-year
generational effort to lock in and build on today's gains," McCaffrey
recently told the Associated Press. "If at any point during this long-term
process we let down our guard or squander our momentum, we risk repeating
with today's youth the wasted mistakes of past generations."

Our nation cannot afford such an oversight.

Checked-by: Don Beck