SURVEY SHOWS DROP IN TEEN SMOKING, DRINKING, DRUG USE

Fewer higher school students than a decade ago say they are smoking,
binge drinking, or using drugs, but some adults don't buy the results
of the latest statewide survey.

Those who work with youth point to the recent deaths of teens who
overdosed on drugs and other examples as evidence that the 2003
Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior Survey doesn't reflect city
students' lives. A smaller percentage of teens compared with their
peers a decade ago said they were carrying weapons in the state
survey, which was released yesterday.

"I'm shocked . . . because I thought things were getting worse, in
terms of using drugs," said Michael Fung, Charlestown High School
principal. He recalled the case of John Woods, the 17-year-old hockey
star from Charlestown who died, along with his girlfriend, after
overdosing last month. "Violent crime against young people has not
gone down -- and it's usually related to drugs."

The survey, conducted every two years by the state Department of
Education, polled 3,624 students in 2003, in 50 high schools selected
randomly. The results are included in the federal Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention survey; national results are scheduled to be
released today.

Fewer students reported they were binge drinking, or using alcohol on
occasion. Those who said they had sipped alcohol in the month before
the survey dropped from 53 percent in 2001 to less than half in 2003.
Smoking clearly lost favor. The percentage of teens who said they had
tried cigarettes declined from 62 percent in 2001 to a little more
than half of those surveyed last year. Daily cigarette smoking dipped
from 13 percent surveyed in 1999 to 7 percent last year.

Violent behavior, according to teens, also dropped sharply. Those who
carried a weapon, got into physical fights, and who were threatened
declined. But the frequency stayed the same for some problems:
students who reported being bullied, involved in a gang, or enduring
sexual contact against their will.

On the surface, students are coping better. The percentage of students
who contemplated suicide last year was 16.3 percent, compared with
nearly a quarter in 1993.

"Hopefully this means the right message is getting through to our
students and many of them are starting to make healthier choices for
themselves," Commissioner David P. Driscoll said in a statement yesterday.

But some bad behaviors remain troubling: the percentage of students
who reported trying any alcohol during their lives decreased only
slightly, and use of illegal drugs - cocaine, marijuana, and heroin
- - remained steady. Nearly half the students surveyed had tried marijuana.

"That has remained a constant . . . especially in certain
neighborhoods," said Kristin O'Connor, spokeswoman for the Boston
Public Health Commission. She mentioned South Boston in particular,
where city health workers have reported that heroin use among young
adults has been persistently troubling.

Some might think that a 3 percent rate of heroin use is small, but
O'Connor noted, "If you think that there are almost 19,000 high school
students in Boston, that's hundreds of kids."

Alexa Kuzmich, a South Boston senior who attends Boston Latin School,
said the survey results match what she sees: students unwilling to use
drugs. "It doesn't seem worth it. We all know the risks [of using],
and what it does to them," said Kuzmich, 18.

Some principals said they have noticed less drug use during school
hours. "In the beginning of the year I'd see kids high all the time in
the hallways. I just don't see it as much," said Karen Daniels,
headmaster of Excel High School, part of the former South Boston High
complex. Fewer students said they were being offered drugs at school
- - 32 percent, as opposed to 42 percent in 1997.

Jerome Burke, principal of Southeastern Regional Vocational Technical
High School in Easton, said he had to discipline far fewer students
this year because of drug use.

"Kids in possession or distribution on school grounds? My recollection
is that it was a lot less than it had been in the last couple of
years." Students, he said, are far more likely to report when someone
in shop is high, as it poses a danger to the user as well as other
students.

Burke said he could recall only one incident, where one student ground
up some Aderol, used for attention deficit disorder, so the teen and
some friends could snort it in the cafeteria.

Brother Robert Green, headmaster of Malden Catholic High School, where
John Woods had been a senior, said he wouldn't want adults to use the
survey results as an excuse to ease up on drug abuse programs.

"If indeed things are better, they aren't better enough," Green said.
"There are too many kids that are at some kind of risk of doing things
that aren't good for them.

"The war isn't over."