MORE TEEN GIRLS USE MARIJUANA

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Marijuana use is declining among urban teenage boys,
but is actually on the rise among adolescent girls, according to a report
presented at a meeting of the Society For Adolescent Medicine in Atlanta,
Georgia.

That finding was from a survey of 4,925 urban African-American adolescents,
ages 12 to 21, who completed an anonymous, self-administered questionnaire
on health risk behaviors, according to Cynthia Brasseux and colleagues at
the Children's National Medical Center in Washington, DC. The investigators
also collected and tested urine samples from a sub-sample of the same group
of adolescents.

About 19% of girls and 22% of boys said they used marijuana in 1994-1995,
while the researchers were able to confirm a use rate of 10.6% for females
and 14.5% for males. Current data from the study, now entering its fourth
year, shows the confirmed use in girls rose to 15.5%, while the confirmed
rate in boys dropped to 13.4%. The self-reported use rate for girls
increased to 25%, while the self-reported use rate for boys dropped to 14%.

In the past five years, adolescent use of marijuana has increased while
cocaine use has decreased, making marijuana the drug of choice for American
adolescents, according to Brasseux. This data shows a "dramatic rise" in
marijuana use among urban African-American adolescent girls. It highlights
the "need to target interventions to females," Brasseux told Reuters.

According to another study presented at the meeting, adolescents who
recently used marijuana are more likely to be sexually active, and may
therefore be increasing their risk of contracting HIV. Dr. Zhihuan Huang of
the Children's National Medical Center presented his group's analysis of
African-American adolescents attending an urban adolescent health clinic.

Marijuana use in this group was determined from blinded urine drug
screenings or through self-reported anonymous questionnaires. Of the 3,277
adolescents (33.4% boys and 66.6% girls) studied, approximately 66% were
sexually active. Of these, 33% reported recent marijuana use, 52% reported
inconsistent condom use, 66% had more than two sexual partners, 6.3% had
experience with anal sex, and 3% traded sex for goods.

The Washington researchers conclude that having multiple sexual partners has
the strongest association with recent marijuana use. This indicates that
adolescent prevention programs should recognize marijuana use as an
important indicator of HIV risk behaviors, they said.