TEENS' DRUG USE DECLINES SHARPLY

Marijuana Down 11% In Two Years

WASHINGTON - Drug use among U.S. teens dropped substantially in the past
two years, according to a federal survey released Friday.

Use of marijuana - by far the most popular drug with teens - is down about
11 percent since 2001, Bush administration officials reported, and use of
several other drugs, including LSD and ecstasy, dropped even more sharply.
Use of amphetamines, the second most popular drug with teens, also fell.

Alcohol and cigarette use among teens declined, too, but only modestly.

The numbers translate to 400,000 fewer teen drug users, said John Walters,
director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

"This kind of change has not been seen across the board in almost a
decade," he said.

The findings are from the 2003 Monitoring the Future Survey, conducted by
the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research in Ann Arbor. It
reports the drug use, abstinence and attitudes of nearly 50,000 eighth-,
10th- and 12th-graders nationwide.

"This is a siren call to drug dealers and the naysayers out there who say
we're losing the drug war," said Karen Tandy, administrator of the Drug
Enforcement Administration.

The news wasn't all upbeat, however. Use of inhalants among eighth-graders
rose 14 percent in the last year. Sniffing substances such as glue,
aerosols, paint thinner and nail polish remover are popular among young
teens because the products are cheap and easy to obtain.

Cocaine and heroin use among teens was unchanged between 2001 and 2003, but
remained well below levels of the late 1990s. LSD plummeted by nearly
two-thirds, and ecstasy use dropped by half. The use of the club drugs rose
rapidly from 1998 to 2001 but has since declined.

The overall drop in drug use wasn't merely a matter of switching from
illegal drugs to alcohol, according to the survey. The number of students
reporting that they'd been drunk declined by 11 percent. Teens reporting
that they'd ever smoked dropped 18 percent.

The study also showed a change in adolescent attitudes. The perceived risk
of using marijuana increased at all three grade levels, for example.
Students said they'd seen anti-drug ads from organizations such as the
Partnership for a Drug Free America and that the ads had made them less
likely to use drugs.

Lloyd Johnston of the University of Michigan, who administered the survey,
said the dramatic turnaround wasn't possible until young people saw drug
use as dangerous.

He cautioned that while the decline in teen cigarette smoking has been
"substantial and important," the current drop essentially offsets dramatic
increases in teen smoking observed in the first half of the 1990s.

"Even with the improvements, we still have a quarter of our young people
who are actively smoking by the time that they leave high school," Johnston
said. "That is an unacceptably high rate for a behavior that so endangers
their health and reduces their life expectancy."

In many cities, more teenagers are smoking marijuana than tobacco, he said,
and that's a problem, too. Of the roughly 1 million teens who seek drug
treatment, more than 60 percent need treatment for marijuana.

Drugs too new to have usage trends are also appearing, Johnston said. Among
high school seniors, 4.5 percent reported using the painkiller OxyContin in
the past year, and 10.5 percent say they've used the pain control drug Vicodin.

"Considering the addictive potential of these drugs, these are disturbingly
high rates of use," Johnston said.