DRUGRELATED HOSPITAL VISITS FALL FOR FIRST TIME IN THE '90S

WASHINGTON In another sign of progress in the nation's war on substance
abuse, the number of drugrelated visits to hospital emergency rooms across
the country has fallen for the first time in the 1990s, federal health
officials announced Tuesday.

After rising steadily through 1994, drugcaused emergency treatment
declined 6 percent from 1995 to 1996, according to the federal government's
Drug Abuse Warning Network, a national reporting system. The data came from
responses from 21 metropolitan communities.

The statistically significant decrease resulted mostly from a drop in cases
that involved legal drugs prescription drugs as well as overthecounter
drugs such as aspirin and ibuprofen, the government said.

But the trends most lauded Tuesday by health officials were the leveling
off of cases related to heroin and cocaine use, a drop in cases involving
methamphetamine ("speed"), and an apparent drop in the rate of increase in
episodes involving marijuana and hashish.

These findings are especially significant in light of the dramatic
increases that preceded them, officials said.

"The reasons for this apparent turnaround involve everyone in America
parents, teachers, coaches, religious leaders and community coalitions,"
said National Drug Policy Director Barry McCaffrey. "The media also plays a
large role. ... Everyone has been a part of effectively spreading the
message that drug abuse is devastating to the user and the nation. The
slight success we are seeing encourages us to continue our hard work."

But the fact that marijuanarelated episodes continued to increase, even
though at a much slower rate, prompted Health and Human Services Secretary
Donna E. Shalala to warn that "marijuana is a powerful drug with
potentially serious consequences" and caution that "our work to prevent
substance abuse and treat addiction is far from finished."

McCaffrey said the decreases in drugrelated emergency treatment, "though
slight," give credence to other recent surveys that indicate "the upward
slope of drug abuse has indeed begun to be arrested. The numbers are an
incentive to turn these slight decreases into substantial longterm
reductions."

Recently, HHS released its annual study of teenage drug use showing that
use of illicit substances appears to be leveling off after rising
throughout the 1990s; marijuana use among older teens, however, continued
to climb.

The findings showed that the number of cocainerelated episodes, which
increased 78 percent between 1990 and 1994, remained constant between 1994
and 1996. Heroinrelated episodes, which rose 113 percent from 1990 to
1995, showed no change from 1995 to 1996.

Episodes of speedrelated emergency room visits, after increasing 237
percent from 1990 to 1994, fell by 39 percent between 1994 and 1996.
Between the first and second halves of 1996, however, such incidents
increased 71 percent, from 4,000 to 6,800.

Officials said the drop may be due to the short supply of speed from
mid1995 through early 1996 the result of steppedup efforts on the part
of drug agents to crack down on "meth labs" and cautioned that the
number of speedrelated cases could continue to climb.

While marijuana and hashishrelated cases were statistically unchanged
between 1995 and 1996, the rate of increase appears to be slowing, health
officials said.

The kinds of drugrelated episodes that result in emergency room visits
typically involve drug overdoses, drug interactions with alcohol, accidents
resulting from disorientation and impaired reflexes, and suicide attempts,
officials said.