REPORT -- 20 PERCENT OF YOUNG AMERICANS DRIVE INTOXICATED

WASHINGTON - More than four million people younger than 21 drove under the
influence of drugs or alcohol last year, according to a government report
released Wednesday. That's one in five of all Americans ages 16 to 20.

"That's an awful lot of kids if you think about it," said Charlene Lewis,
acting director of the Office of Applied Studies at the Substance Abuse and
Mental Health Services Administration, which produced the report.

The report, based on a large household survey of drug use, found a small
drop in driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol between 2002 and
2003. In 2002, 22 percent drove under the influence; last year, it was 20
percent.

Just 4 percent of these young people reported being arrested and booked for
driving under the influence in the year before they were interviewed.

The report was released Wednesday in advance of New Year's Eve in hopes of
raising consciousness of the issue on a night when the risk of drinking and
driving is high, federal officials said. Motor vehicle crashes are the
leading cause of death among young people.

The data come from face-to-face interviews in the homes of people ages 12
and up, part of the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. People were
asked to define for themselves what driving "under the influence" of drugs
or alcohol means.

Young people were most likely to drink alcohol and then drive, with 17
percent admitting this. Fourteen percent said they had driven under the
influence of illicit drugs, and eight percent reported driving after
consuming a combination of alcohol and drugs.

The rates were highest among people who lived in the Midwest and among
those who lived outside of metro areas.

Researchers did not have data to compare the 2002-03 rates to earlier
years. But a similar survey of teen behavior found that drunken driving
fell steadily between 1984 and the early 1990s, as media campaigns pleaded
that "friends don't let friends drive drunk" and urged partygoers to choose
a designated driver.

The rates remained level from 1992 to 1995 before jumping a bit in the late
1990s and then declining a little in 2003, said Lloyd Johnston, principal
investigator for the University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future survey
of students.

"It's not nearly as serious a problem as it was in the mid-'80s but it's
still a serious problem," he said.

He said that his survey also found that a substantial number of teens rode
in cars where drivers had been drinking, adding to the number of young
people at risk.

Johnston added that while teens growing up in the 1980s were exposed to
heavy media campaigns against drunken driving, that's not true for today's
teens. He warned of "generational forgetting."

"Each generation has to be reeducated about the dangers of any of these
behaviors," he said.