ENCOURAGING SIGNALS IN WAR AGAINST DRUGS

It's been said that the war on drugs won't be won in the courtroom, but on
the playground. If that's so, then there may be a glimmer of hope in this
difficult battle.

According to an annual national survey widely regarded as the most accurate
assessment of illegal drug use by teenagers, the appeal of drugs appears to
be slipping among older adolescents, while drug use among eighthgraders
has stopped climbing for the first time since 1992.

True, the announcement by President Clinton isn't much to cheer about; some
Republican lawmakers said it showed that America was losing ground. The
survey gave them lots of ammunition nearly half of all seniors who
graduated from high school this year admitted having tried marijuana at
least once, compared with 45% the year before. It's also troubling that
5.8% of seniors said they smoked marijuana daily in the month before the
survey, up from 4.9% last year.

But the report, done by the National Institute of Drug Abuse, also showed
that the level of experimentation with harder drugs such as cocaine and
heroin among graduating seniors had risen more modestly than in recent
years.

But what's more encouraging, among 18,600 eighthgraders surveyed, 29.4%
said they had tried an illegal drug, usually marijuana, at least once in
1997, compared with 31.2% in 1996. The eighthgraders also expressed
somewhat more disapproval of drug users than their predecessors did the
year before.

Donna Shalala, health and human services secretary, says eighthgraders are
beginning to get clear messages from the most influential people in their
lives their parents along with teachers and others that drugs are
dangerous. If Shalala's assessment is on target, then the timing couldn't
be better for the administration's next salvo a $195 million antidrug TV
campaign aimed at children aged 9 to 17. The ads will be tested in 12
cities, including Milwaukee, starting next month.

None of this is reason to smile not when more than 25% of eighthgraders
surveyed are still using drugs. But considering what's at stake, the United
States not only needs to keep plugging away, but also needs to savor even
the smallest successes.