MARIJUANA HOOK FOUND IN TROUBLED YOUTHS

Study finds dependency most likely in those with behavior problems

Researchers have identified a group of teenagers - those with serious prior
behavioral problems such as lying and stealing - who are likely to become
regular users of marijuana soon after first using the drug.

It took only a year, on average, for troubled teenagers to progress from
first use of marijuana to monthly use - almost as quickly as they
progressed to regular cigarette smoking, according to a study published in
the current issue of Addiction Research and Treatment, a scientific
journal.

By contrast, it took more than two years for this group, who were 13 to 19
years old, to get to the same point with alcohol after they first tried it,
the study found.

The finding may help target prevention messages and treatment toward the
youths who are most susceptible to marijuana dependency.

It also focuses attention on a central puzzle about marijuana, which has
been tried by an estimated 70 million Americans: What distinguishes those -
apparently a small fraction - who develop serious dependence on the illicit
drug?

One top federal drug official, Dr. Alan I. Leshner, director of the
National Institute on Drug Abuse, said the study should be a general
warning about marijuana's dangers. ''It says that the belief that marijuana
is benign is false,'' Leshner said. ''The public thinks it's a cute
recreational drug.''

Dr. Thomas J. Crowley, leader of the federally funded study, agreed that
the results contradict those who believe marijuana ''is a drug without
adverse effects.'' But he takes a more limited view of the study's
implications.

''This says that with the right people and under the right circumstances,
this drug can have very serious effects,'' Crowley said.

A leading critic of US drug policy, Dr. Lester Grinspoon of Harvard Medical
School, said Leshner and others are using the study to portray marijuana as
more dangerous than it is.

''When all is said and done, people will see that while marijuana is not
harmless, it is much less harmful than alcohol or cocaine or other
substances,'' said Grinspoon, who is board chairman of the National
Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws.

The new study suggests that most adolescents with a history of antisocial
conduct will become dependent on marijuana once they try it, and have great
difficulty stopping its use. It also found that the behavioral problems
came first, not as a consequence of marijuana use.

The need is growing to understand which adolescents are most vulnerable to
marijuana dependence, because the number who experiment with the drug is
rising. About 10 percent of all teenagers between ages 13 and 17
acknowledged using marijuana within the previous year, according to
national household surveys analyzed by Denise Kandel of Columbia
University.

Nobody knows what proportion of adolescents develop serious marijuana
dependency.

Crowley's study found that adolescents most susceptible to marijuana
dependency are likely to have underlying mental problems, such as
depression and attention deficit disorder, that emerge in what specialists
call ''conduct disorders'' - a history of lying, cheating, stealing,
running away from home, and acts of physical cruelty.