DRUG WAR'S HIGH PRICE TAG BRINGS LITTLE PROGRESS AMONG TEENS

Billion-dollar increases in the fight against substance abuse aren't doing
much good, experts say.

WASHINGTON -- The number of teenagers who use illicit drugs, alcohol and
tobacco declined slightly in the last school year but remain alarmingly
high in the face of billion-dollar increases in drug war spending, a
government study released Friday indicates.

Among high school sophomores, use of marijuana in the last school year
dropped to 31.1 percent in 1997-98 from 34.8 percent in the 1996-97 school
year, the study found. Thirty-five percent of sophomores said they had used
any kind of drug, including tobacco, in the last school year, down from
38.5 percent from the year earlier.

Overall drug use among eighth-graders dropped from 23.6 percent to 21
percent in the latest school year, the study shows. But marijuana use was
steady at 9.7 percent for that grade and remained at 22.8 percent among
high school seniors.

There were small drops in use of inhalants and LSD by teenagers but the
relatively small number of heroin users did not decrease.

Over the past three years, the federal government's financial commitment to
fighting drug use has grown from $13 billion a year to $18 billion. But
drug use among teens has remained stubbornly high despite that increased
effort.

"These figures are still very high -- way too high," said Ahron Leightman,
executive director of Citizens for a Tobacco-Free Society. "Maybe these
figures have gotten so high that they can't rise much more."

Secretary of the Health and Human Services Department Donna Shalala said
the government is not yet getting overly confident.

"The bottom line is that we have not achieved victory -- and I am not
declaring it," she said.

Federal officials said Friday they hope to see a significant drop in usage
within the next two years.

"We ought to be skeptical and cautious about our assertions today," said
Barry McCaffrey, director of the office of National Drug Control Policy.

"Our commitment must be to continuing to make progress through a 10-year
generational effort to lock in and build on today's gains. 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."

Drug use among teens declined steadily from the early 1980s until 1992,
when it began to rise, said University of Michigan Professor Lloyd
Johnston, who conducts the annual study.

The 1996 study found that the number of eighth-graders using marijuana had
almost doubled from the year earlier. That survey also found significant
increases in the number of eighth-graders and sophomores who use alcohol
and smoke cigarettes.

Last year's report found drug use stabilizing for the first time after
years on the rise. It also found a rise in adolescents' perception that
drug use was a bad thing, a key element in stopping actual use, McCaffrey
said.

"This consistent progress gives reason for optimism," he said. "It
demonstrated that our balanced approach -- focusing on preventing children
from turning to drugs, treating drug addicts and breaking trafficking
organizations --) works."

Leightman, of the anti-tobacco group, said more government emphasis should
be placed on curbing legal drugs like tobacco and alcohol, which are
readily available to teens. Some 22.4 percent of high school seniors smoked
cigarettes daily in the latest survey, compared to 1992's all-time low of
17.2 percent.

"The ramifications will only be felt in future decades when these people
become debilitated," Leightman said.

As part of the effort, Shalala said, every public and private middle school
is to receive a science-based box of information for teachers to show
students how drugs affect the brain.

Shalala also called for parents to take more responsibility for preventing
teen drug use.

"They need to help their children understand that drugs attack the body,
deaden the mind and build a wall between them and their dreams," she said,
"because the only things drugs have ever done for childhood is bring it to
an early end."

The Monitoring the Future survey, conducted by the University of Michigan
for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has tracked teen drug
use since 1975. Almost 50,000 eighth-graders, sophomores and seniors across
the United States were surveyed anonymously with questionnaires distributed
at 422 schools during the 1997-98 school year.

Checked-by: Richard Lake