BUSH ASSERTS DECLINING TEEN DRUG USE; REPORTS VARY

President George W. Bush claims a national decline in teen drug use
during his tenure, but enormous challenges remain in convincing young
people about the dangers of marijuana and other illicit substances.

At the White House on Thursday, the president was surrounding himself
with leaders in drug prevention and people in recovery, including
Josh Hamilton, a star baseball player for the Texas Rangers who has
battled through addictions to cocaine and alcohol. Bush, the former
co-owner of the Rangers, has spoken openly about his old drinking
habit, saying, "I understand addiction." The 62-year-old president
gave up drinking after his 40th birthday.

The presidential event is timed to the release of data from three
studies. One examines drug use among teenagers; the others detail cocaine use.

The president's main message: Overall drug use among youths is down
25 percent since 2001, when he took office. That figure is based on
the new "Monitoring the Future" study by the University of Michigan,
a yearly report that looks at the behavior of eighth-, 10th- and
12th-graders nationwide.

The other part of Bush's theme, based on two other data sets, is
success in targeting cocaine. Bush's Office of National Drug Control
Policy says the research suggests the supply and the purity of
street-level cocaine is dropping, fueled in part by U.S. interdiction
efforts with countries such as Mexico.

But there are troubling signs, too, including carefree attitudes
among young people about marijuana and a shift to prescription
medicine as a drug of choice. Independent anti-drug experts say that
even the progress during the Bush years is deeply mixed. Reports
vary, and huge numbers of kids still use drugs.

The Michigan survey found 10.9 percent of eighth-graders, 23.9
percent of 10th-graders, and 32.4 percent of 12th-graders reported
using marijuana over the past year. It also found that the proportion
of eighth-graders who considered smoking marijuana to be harmful was
going down.