YOUNGER TEENS' DRUG USE LEVELING OFF, STUDY FINDS

Survey: Plateau In Eighthgraders' Rising Intake Through The '90s Is
'Mathematical Good News,' Drug Policy Chief Says. Broader Picture Is Mixed.

WASHINGTONIllegal drug use among younger teenagers appears to be leveling
off after rising throughout the 1990s, and fewer young teens are choosing
to start smoking, according to a major study released Saturday.

For older teens the picture is mixed. Marijuana use is still ticking
upward, but the use of other illicit drugs is growing little or not at all,
according to the survey.

Although the levelingoff may turn out to be a turning point, teen drug use
remains sharply higher than it was at the beginning of the decade.

Since 1991, illicit drug use has nearly doubled among eighthgraders,
according to the survey, with 22% telling researchers in 1997 that they had
taken an illicit drug sometime in the last year.

Comparable figures were 38.5% for 10thgraders and 42.4% for 12thgraders.
The latter two figures both represent increases over 1996, but for
10thgraders the rate of increase was the lowest since 1993.

Similarly, daily cigarette use among 12thgraders is at its highest level
since 1979.

The study's authors say that while the plateau in drug use among younger
teenagers is good news, they would like to see another year of data in
several areas to ensure that it is not an aberration.

"This is mathematical good news but does not in any way state that we have
seen victory over this drug problem. These are marginal changes in
attitudes, in druguse rates among American youngsters," said Gen. Barry R.
McCaffrey, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

At the same time, he said he was encouraged "that the slope of the curve
has changed, and after five years of inexorable increase in drug use by
youngsters in all of these age groups, it either stabilized or went down."

President Clinton used the release of the survey as an opportunity in his
weekly Saturday radio address to encourage parents to talk with their
children about the dangers of illegal drugs and to highlight a $195million
federally financed advertising campaign to discourage children from using
illegal drugs.

"Our goal is to make sure that every time a child turns on the television
or surfs the Internet, he or she will get the powerful message that drugs
can destroy your life," Clinton said.

Parents are the first line of defense in the drug war, Clinton emphasized.

"The most effective strategy we have against drugs begins at home. . . .
It's a fight that can be won at kitchen tables across America."

The survey, which was conducted by the University of Michigan's Institute
for Social Research with a grant from the government's National Institute
on Drug Abuse, involved 51,000 teenagers at more than 400 public and
private secondary schools nationwide. The survey has been conducted for 23
years and is regarded as a significant barometer of drug use trends among
young people.

Marijuana use, which is considered by many researchers as a warning sign
that a teenager may be at risk of using other drugs, leveled off among
eighthgraders in 1997 and increased only a statistically insignificant
amount among 10thgraders. Marijuana use by 12thgraders continued to rise
but at a slower rate than in the early 1990s.

Lloyd Johnston, the study's chief investigator, said the trend in marijuana
use squared with a change in attitudes toward marijuana. "During the early
1990s, we saw a considerable decline in the proportions of students
reporting marijuana use as dangerous," Johnston said. Now the proportion of
younger teenagers that say they disapprove of even occasional marijuana use
is edging up.

"We know there is a relationship between whether you think a drug is
dangerous and whether you use that drug," said Health and Human Services
Secretary Donna Shalala. "What's happening is that eighthgraders are
beginning to get very clear messages, first from their parents, then from
their teachers and from the rest of us, that these drugs are dangerous."

The use of hallucinogens, such as LSD, remains low compared to that of
marijuana, but it too appears to be reaching a plateau. In contrast,
cocaine use continued to rise among 10thgraders and 12thgraders. Among
eighthgraders it declined slightly. Cigarette smoking continued to rise
among older teens despite increasing publicity about smoking's dangers.
Among 12thgraders, 25% said they had smoked daily in the last 30 daysthe
highest proportion since 1979.

"Cigarette smoking constitutes the single largest threat to the health and
longevity of this generation of young Americans," Johnston said, "which
makes the substantial increase in their smoking rates over the past five or
six years of particular concern."

Though younger teens appear to be beginning to understand the dangers of
smoking, they are still starting at alarming rates, according to Johnston.

From 1992 to 1996, the proportion of eighthgraders who reported smoking
daily increased from 7% in 1992 to 10.4% in 1996. This year, the percentage
dropped to 9%.

Survey: Teen Drug Use
(Percentage of respondents in each group reporting having used any illegal
drug in the last 12 months)

Grade 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997
8thgraders 11.4 12.9 15.1 18.5 21.4 23.6 22.1
10thgraders 21.4 20.4 24.7 30.0 33.0 37.5 38.5
12thgraders 29.4 27.1 31.0 35.8 39.0 40.2 42.4

Source: University of Michigan Institute for Social Research

Copyright Los Angeles Times