SURVEY: 10 PERCENT OF AMERICANS USE DRUGS

More than 1 in 10 Americans suffered from substance dependence or abuse of
illicit drugs, alcohol or both last year, according to a new government
survey released Friday. The survey, based on interviews with more than
68,000 respondents age 12 or older, estimated that 19.5 million people had
used illegal drugs in the month before being interviewed, 54 million had
engaged in binge drinking and 15.9 million considered themselves heavy
drinkers.

The vast majority of people with substance disorders - 94 percent - said
they did not believe they needed treatment. The report by the Substance
Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration indicated that 7.7 million
people needed treatment for a drug problem and another 18.6 million needed
help to battle alcohol, yet only 1.4 million and 1.5 million, respectively,
had received treatment.

"A denial gap of over 94 percent is intolerable," said John Walters,
director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. "People
need to understand the addictive nature of drugs and not presume that they
are all right when everyone around them knows better."

Moreover, the report found that nearly 350,000 people who realized they
needed treatment for drug or alcohol abuse were unable to get treatment, a
number Walters said would be cut considerably if Congress approved the
additional $200 million a year President Bush is seeking for treatment
programs starting next year.

The survey, done periodically since 1972, and every year since 1991,
underwent a number of technical and substantive changes in 2002, including
paying participants $30 for answering the questions and tighter quality
controls for survey takers. As a result, responses about all types of drug
use and abuse were higher than for 2001, and officials cautioned against
making direct comparisons.

"We think that the higher numbers are largely because of the change in
survey methods, not because there has been any sudden change in trends of
behaviors," said Charles Curie, head of the Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administration.

Illegal drug use is highest among adults 18 to 25 years old, with more than
20 percent using them in the past month. Among those ages 12 to 17, the
rate was 11.6 percent.

The report noted a continued increase in the number of teens and young
adults who had "ever used" marijuana and cocaine. Marijuana is still the
most commonly used illicit drug, with 14.6 million people smoking it in
2002, although the number of teens under 18 who started using the drug
declined from 2.1 million in 2000 to 1.7 million in 2001.

The second-most-popular category of drug use after marijuana was the
non-medical use of prescription drugs. An estimated 6.2 million people -
2.6 percent of the population aged 12 or older - were current users of
prescription drugs taken without a medical reason. Of these, an estimated
4.4 million used narcotic pain relievers and 1.8 million used anti-anxiety
medications.

One positive note from the survey was that among those under 18, the number
of new daily smokers decreased from about 3,000 per day in 2000 to about
2,000 per day in 2001.

Overall, the survey found that 30 percent of the population 12 or older,
71.5 million people, use tobacco, mainly cigarettes.

Among other highlights:

- - About 10.7 million people ages 12 to 20 (28.8 percent of this age group)
reported drinking alcohol in the month before the interview. And the survey
found that 33.5 million people of all ages had driven a car under the
influence of alcohol at least once in the 12 months before the interview;

- - More than 83 percent of those ages 12-17 reported having seen or heard
alcohol-or drug-prevention messages outside of school in the past year.
They indicated a slightly lower past-month use of an illicit drug, about 2
percent less, than those who had not seen or heard anti-drug messages; -
There are 4 million adults who have both a substance-use disorder and
serious mental illness. An estimated 17.5 million adults age 18 or older
had serious mental illness. That was 8.3 percent of all adults. Adults who
used illicit drugs were more than twice as likely to have serious mental
illness as adults who did not use an illicit drug.