DRUG USE DOWN IN ONTARIO BUT BINGE DRINKING A PROBLEM

As is the case with most illicit drugs, the use of ecstasy is on the wane
among students in Ontario, but binge drinking remains a problem, the Centre
for Addiction and Mental Health reported today.

"The escalating trend in adolescent drug use that we have been following
since the early 1990s has subsided, and there is some evidence of a downward
movement," said Dr. Edward Adlaf, the centre's senior scientist and lead
researcher on the annual Ontario Student Drug Use Survey.

"The 2003 survey is (also) the first to show a decline in the use of
ecstasy."

Ecstasy use among students in 2003 was 4.1 per cent, compared with six per
cent in 2001, Adlaf said.

Just 15 per cent of students reported using an illicit drug other than
cannabis in 2003, compared with 21 per cent in 2001. And while cannabis
rates have been steady for several years, they're still high: 28 per cent
compared with just 12 per cent 10 years ago.

Indeed, cannabis is more prevalent than tobacco at 19 per cent - a far cry
from 1999, when 28 per cent of respondents reported smoking cigarettes
daily. Findings for 2003 are the lowest on record since 1977.

"Most students do not use illicit drugs; indeed, about two-thirds have not
used an illicit drug in the past year," Adlaf said.

"Further, the majority of drug users who do report using drugs do so
infrequently - one or two times during the past year."

Perceptions about the dangers of illicit drugs have been declining, while
the availability of those drugs has increased, he noted. "Despite this
downward trend, it is important to note that current rates generally exceed
those found in the 1990s."

Among the survey's more troubling findings, however, was the 25 per cent of
students who admitted to at least one drinking binge in 2003, compared with
just 15 per cent 10 years earlier. Binge drinking is the consumption of five
or more drinks in a single sitting.

"Clearly, alcohol and binge drinking continues to be a problem," said Peter
Coleridge, the centre's vice-president of communications, education and
community health.

"We're particularly concerned that youth still do not recognize that binge
drinking is a hazardous and serious threat to their health."

Binge drinking is identified as a health indicator for young people in
Canada because of its association with accidents and injuries, said Andrea
Stevens-Lavigne, the centre's director of communications, education and
community health.

"It is also an indicator of future problems with youth in terms of having
alcohol problems down the road as adults," Stevens-Lavigne said.

"There are also other risk factors and implications of heavy drinking; it
could be social issues, fights, aggression, date rape - there are a number
of issues that put youth at risk if in fact they're engaged in heavy
drinking."

Researchers also warned that cocaine use appears to be growing in
popularity: five per cent of students reported using cocaine, compared with
three per cent in 1999 and one per cent in 1993.

Adlaf said it's possible that high-profile incidents of young people dying
from ecstasy use in recent years has hurt the drug's popularity, leaving
some young people to turn instead to cocaine.

"Now, ecstasy is perceived as being a much more risky adventure, and in the
interim, cocaine has risen somewhat, so we have a little bit of perhaps a
substitution occurring."

One in five students also reported getting behind the wheel after using
marijuana, while one in seven admitted to drinking and driving, the survey
found.

Some 6,600 students in grades 7 through 12 from 126 schools across the
province participated in the annual survey last spring.

The centre also expects results in the new year from another study that's
exploring the barriers that prevent youth from seeking and getting treatment
for drug or alcohol abuse problems, Coleridge said.