STATE TEEN DRUG USE HIGHEST IN U.S.

'Study should cause alarm in every family'

WASHINGTON - One out of six Arizona youths used illegal drugs in the past
month -- especially marijuana -- a rate that is nearly double that of
California and one-third higher than the national average.

The numbers come from an annual nationwide federal study that honed in on
Arizona and California this year because both states have approved
so-called medical marijuana initiatives.

The National Household Survey on Drug Abuse released Friday found that 13.1
percent of Arizonans ages 12 to 17 said they had used marijuana in the past
month. And 16.8 percent said they had used "any illicit drug," including
cocaine, inhalants or heroin.

Arizona's youth marijuana figure was more than one-third higher than the
nation as a whole -- 9.6 percent -- and it was nearly double the rate of
neighboring California -- 6.6 percent.

"This study should cause alarm bells to go off in every family in Arizona,"
said Chuck Blanchard, chief counsel for Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the federal
drug czar. McCaffrey released the report along with the Department of
Health and Human Services.

"This weekend, every Arizona parent should sit down and talk to their kids
about drug use," said Blanchard, a former Arizona state senator.

Analysts surprised

The findings surprised government analysts, who have been compiling
similar, nationwide surveys since 1971 but had never broken out Arizona
figures individually until now.

Arizona and California, which both passed medical marijuana initiatives in
1996, were selected as the first two states ever to undergo individual
breakdowns as part of the national drug survey.

The Clinton administration conceded that, with limited money available for
individual state sampling, it intentionally picked the two states that
passed drug-legalization measures that it opposed.

Arizona's Proposition 200 was designed to allow physicians to prescribe
marijuana or other controlled substances to seriously ill patients. This
year, its backers moved to put the issue back on the ballot after the state
Legislature, in effect, suspended it. McCaffrey has been lobbying against
Proposition 200 and similar measures in other states, saying the
propositions send a mixed message to youths.

'Looking at impact'

However, the Clinton administration denied it was using its drug-use survey
to try to make a case against medical use of marijuana.

"This is not arguing for or against, it's just looking at what the
potential impact is (of medical marijuana initiatives). It's to look at
trends," said Mark Weber, a substance-abuse spokesman for Health and Human
Services.

At least publicly, the Clinton administration did not attempt to make a
correlation between the survey's Arizona marijuana figures and Proposition
200.

However, an internal document from the federal drug czar's office suggested
that it believes there may be a link. The document highlights the survey
and notes its finding that the perceived risk of smoking marijuana is lower
for both Californians and Arizonans than for Americans generally.

Results 'consistent'

The document notes that this "is consistent with what would be expected,
given the passage of the medical marijuana propositions in these two
states." However, the document says there is simply too little evidence to
reach any conclusion.

The percentage of youth and adult Arizonans who perceived "great risk" in
smoking marijuana once a month was 39.9 percent for Arizona, and 37.6
percent for California. The national figure, excluding those two states,
was 43.5 percent.

"The issue about whether the proposition would have any effect on youth
attitudes is an open issue," Blanchard said. "The idea was, "These are two
states and we might as well test to find out. But the evidence is
inconclusive. California has lower marijuana use among youths than the
national sample."

The survey said that Arizona's general population, not just youths, also
use drugs at a higher rate than the nation, but not by as alarming a margin
as teens alone. In Arizona, 7.3 percent said they used an illegal drug in
the past month, compared with 5.8 percent nationally.

Overall use steady

The overall use of illegal drugs in the country remained steady last year,
the report said, while reporting a significant increase in drug use among
youth 12-17 nationally -- to 11.4 percent in 1997 from 9 percent in 1996.

The drug czar's office, as well as at least one private group, said the
lesson was to spend more time trying to lessen drug demand by educating
kids and parents.

McCaffrey's office has been running television and radio ads in Arizona
this year that target both parents and kids. The office has a telephone
number (1-800-788-2800) for parents who want advice in talking to their
kids about drugs.

"Too many federal anti-drug dollars continue to be spent on efforts to
reduce the supply of drugs, rather than to reduce demand," said a statement
by Drug Strategies, a Washington-based research institute fighting the drug
problem.

Jeff Barker can be reached at jeff.barker@pni.com via e-mail or at
1-(202) 662-7264.

Mark Greer DrugSense MGreer@mapinc.org
http://www.DrugSense.org/
http://www.mapinc.org

Checked-by: Pat Dolan