STUDY: 11 MILLION HAVE DROVE UNDER INFLUENCE

An estimated 11 million Americans, including nearly one in five
21-year-olds, have driven while under the influence of illegal drugs, the
government says.

WASHINGTON - An estimated 11 million Americans, including nearly one in five
21-year-olds, have driven while under the influence of illegal drugs, the
government says.

The numbers announced Tuesday were especially high for college students.
Eighteen percent of students surveyed said they drove while on drugs last
year, compared with 14 percent of their peers who weren't in college.

John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control
Policy, said the statistics show a failure to convince drivers that drugs
impair driving as much as alcohol does. His office is kicking off an ad
campaign to warn teens about driving while smoking marijuana.

"Marijuana is not the soft drug. Marijuana is not the casual rite of
passage," Walters said at a news conference. "We have been sending the wrong
message."

Walters said marijuana can affect concentration, perception, coordination
and reaction time for up to 24 hours after smoking it.

Nineteen-year-old Theodore Stevens of New Jersey told reporters that he
believed smoking pot and driving wasn't dangerous despite getting into four
accidents in three years. He says he's lucky none of those incidents caused
serious injuries.

"Sometimes I believed it increased my driving performance," said Stevens,
who has been in drug treatment for four months after being charged with
possession of marijuana, cocaine and heroin. Stevens began smoking pot when
he was 14.

The report, compiled by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
used 2002 data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. The survey
questioned 68,000 people.

Researchers then extrapolated the percentages to the population as a whole.
A federal statistician said the margin of error was plus or minus 4.5
percentage points.