Source: Houston Chronicle, page 1
(http://www.chron.com/cgibin/auth/story/content/chronicle/page1/
97/08/14/drugabuse.20.html)
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Drugs kicking in at younger ages

Survey gives 'frightening signal' of substance abuse by U.S. kids

By WILLIAM E. CLAYTON JR.
Copyright 1997 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON U.S. youths increasingly are drinking, smoking and
using drugs at younger ages, a prestigious study group warned
Wednesday.

The group's national survey is "a frightening signal of illegal
drug use among America's younger teenagers," former Health,
Education and Welfare Secretary Joseph Califano said in releasing
the group's findings. "The place to focus our energies is on our
kids and adolescents," he told a news conference.

The survey was sponsored by the Commission on Substance Abuse
Among America's Adolescents, which was created two years ago by
the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia
University. Califano heads the Columbia center.

The commission conducted a national sampling of youngsters and
consulted previous surveys by the Department of Health and Human
Services and others.

Among the findings:

ú Youths are smoking at younger ages. The peak time for starting
is ages 11 and 12. The number of eighthgraders reporting that
they smoked in the previous 30 days rose from 15.5 percent in
1992 to 21 percent in 1996.

ú Youths are bingedrinking earlier. In 1991, 12.9 percent of
eighthgraders surveyed said they had several drinks on at least
one occasion, and the figure was 15.6 percent in 1996.

ú More youths are using marijuana during the seventh grade or
earlier. The eighthgraders who said they had used marijuana in
the seventh grade or earlier rose from 7.7 percent in 1992 to
12.7 percent in 1996.

ú Heroin use among eighthgraders rose from 1.2 percent in 1991
to 2.4 percent in 1996, the sampling indicated.

ú In the age group 1217, 56 percent told the most recent survey
they had friends who had used heroin, cocaine or LSD, an increase
from 39 percent in last year's survey. But among 12yearolds,
the percentage more than doubled in that time, from 11 percent in
the 1996 survey to 24 percent in the most recent sampling.

Califano and the Rev. Edward Malloy, president of the University
of Notre Dame, said the commission study reinforces the idea that
some substances are "gateway drugs" to others.

Medical research on effects of dangerous substances, and national
surveys on drug use, indicate that "the earlier and more often a
teen uses cigarettes, alcohol and marijuana, the greater the odds
that (the) teen will go on to use other illicit drugs," they
said.

They cited studies showing that nicotine, alcohol, marijuana,
cocaine, heroin and amphetamines all affected levels of dopamine,
a neurotransmitter, "through common pathways in the brain."

Califano called on parents, clerics, and teachers to assume a
larger role in discouraging youngsters from using alcohol,
cigarettes and illegal drugs.

"This battle is going to be won across the kitchen table, in the
church and in the schoolyard," Califano said.

The commission used data from its own samplings this year and
last and picked up data from other surveys in previous years,
including some by the University of Michigan, the HHS, the
Institute for Social Research and Partnership for a DrugFree
America.

In some findings, the survey echoed assertions in a report last
week by President Clinton's drug adviser, Barry McCaffrey, and
Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala. McCaffrey said
in that report that among high school youngsters, "the group
ethic tends to be prodrug." The CalifanoMalloy report said that
teens "tend to have a sense of immortality and invulnerability
that makes them think they can use attractive but dangerous
substances with impunity."

McCaffrey praised the Columbia commission's work and said it "is
another wakeup call that we have not changed youth attitudes
about drugs which, if unchecked, presage future use."

The 14member commission, whose membership included prominent
figures from government, academia, medicine and the judiciary,
said the nation should be able to invest $1 billion a year it
did not say from what sources on research on addiction and
other biomedical and social subjects related to addictive
behavior. Cigarette taxes should be boosted by $2 a package, the
report said, and beer taxes should be increased "substantially."

Malloy said the groups with the greatest obligation to help keep
youngsters away from drugs are "parents, teachers, peers, clergy,
doctors (and) the entertainment, fashion and advertising
industries."

"How our teens deal with substance use and abuse will be
determined in the first instance in their homes, schools, and
communities, among their peers and in their extracurricular and
religious activities and leisure pursuits," Malloy said. "The
responsibility that parents, teachers and others who influence
what teens do and how they act cannot be overstated."

The Community AntiDrug Coalitions of America said the commission
report shows that, "We must engage all sectors of the
community faith, business, medical, law enforcement, criminal
justice, education, parents and youth to significantly reverse
attitudes about drug use."