TEEN ABUSE OF RITALIN TAKING ROOT IN INDIANA

Survey finds misuse of the attention-deficit disorder drug among high school
students.

Abuse of the prescription drug Ritalin is catching on among teenagers in
Indiana, where the drug is prescribed four to five times more often than the
national average.

Ritalin typically is prescribed for children diagnosed with
hyperactivity/attention-deficit disorder and it tends to calm them down or
allow them to concentrate better.

Used nonmedically, it often is ground into powder and snorted like cocaine,
or diluted and injected like heroin. Then, it acts as a stimulant, said
William J. Bailey, executive director of Indiana University's Indiana
Prevention Resource Center.

As part of its 1998 survey of teen use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs,
the center also found: * Young people are beginning to smoke cigars,
possibly a response to the recent glamorization of stogies among Hollywood
celebrities. * Use of marijuana appears to have held steady after previous
years of increase. * Overall alcohol use appears to be down, though binge
drinking is up slightly. The center's survey has been conducted annually
since 1991. Bailey said questions about Ritalin were added for the first
time this year after an inquiry by the federal Drug Enforcement
Administration. The DEA had noticed that the drug was being prescribed by
physicians in Indiana at rates four to five times higher than the national
average. Federal officials wanted to know if the IU center had data on
nonmedical use of the drug. It didn't.

But the latest survey showed that about 7 percent of Indiana high school
students had used Ritalin nonmedically at least once, and 2.5 percent of
high school students use it monthly or more frequently.

Some physicians may prescribe the drug too readily without adequately
diagnosing patients or monitoring them for an ongoing need, and some people
have been known to fake symptoms to get a Ritalin prescription, Bailey said.
In addition, theft of the drug is becoming more common as its abuse
increases. "Someone who is interested in stealing Ritalin might be more
likely to target a typical elementary school in an affluent area than a
drugstore, where they have alarms. They'll break in, and go right for the
Ritalin," he said. Among the changes and other developments noted in this
year's teen survey: * Overall, marijuana use stabilized in 1998 compared to
1997. Some grades show slight increases and others decreases, but none of
the changes was considered statistically significant.

What is significant, Bailey said, is that stability after steady increases
in marijuana use from 1992 to 1996. In 1997, there was a slight decrease in
use, which held steady this year.

That shows education and intervention efforts have had some success, he
said. * Overall, alcohol use is down, but binge drinking is up slightly.
Binge drinking is defined as drinking five or more drinks on a single
occasion at least once in the two weeks before the survey. Five drinks is
roughly the amount needed to bring a blood-alcohol level up to the legal
limit of 0.10 percent.

Among sixth-graders, 8.7 percent reported they had binged, up from 7.6
percent in 1997. The results for selected other grades: 19.7 percent of
eighth-graders, up from 18.9 percent; 29 percent of sophomores, up from 27.8
percent; and 37.5 percent of seniors, up from 33.2 percent. * Nearly one in
10 sixth-graders, a quarter of eighth-graders and about half the seniors had
smoked a cigar at least once. About a quarter of seniors and 12 percent of
eighth-graders said they smoked cigars at least once a month. More boys than
girls reported they smoked cigars, but the numbers of girls was not
insignificant: 33.4 percent of senior girls said they had smoked a cigar at
least once.

Richard Markoff, president of the STAR Alliance for Drug-Free Youth, said he
also has noted an increase in cigar use among youths, dove-tailing with
adult patterns.

"It's not so much because of peer pressure, but to be cool. As more adults
pick this up and kids see that adults think it's a neat thing to do, kids
pick it up," he said.

However, the use of cigarettes and smokeless-tobacco products showed
declines, especially among younger children. That appears to show the
effectiveness of the 1997 federal regulations requiring vendors to check IDs
of cigarette purchasers who appear younger than 27, Bailey said.

Checked-by: "Rolf Ernst"