DIP IN TEEN DRUG USE CALLED INADEQUATE

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 yesterday shows.

Among 10th graders, use of marijuana within the last school year dropped to
31.1 percent in 1997-98 from 34.8 percent in 1996-97, the study found.
Thirty-five percent of 10th graders said they had used any kind of drug,
including tobacco, in the last school year, down from 38.5 percent the
previous year.

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 12th
graders.

The study by Monitoring the Future found small declines in the use of
inhalants and LSD by teenagers, but the relatively small number of heroin
users did not decline.

Over the last 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," Ahron Leightman,
executive director of Citizens for a Tobacco-Free Society, said. "Maybe
these figures have gotten so high that they can't rise much more."

Health and Human Services Secretary Donna E. Shalala, commenting on the
report, said the government was 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 yesterday that they hoped 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," he said. "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, according to Lloyd Johnston, a University of Michigan
professor who conducts the annual study.

The 1996 study found that the number of eighth graders using marijuana
nearly doubled from the year earlier. That survey also found significant
increases in the number of students in grades eight and 10 who used alcohol
and 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 bad -- 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 antitobacco group, said more government emphasis should be
placed on curbing legal drugs such as 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 with 1992's record 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."

Checked-by: Don Beck