WHITE HOUSE SPINNING YOUTH DRUG USE DATA

The 2007 report of the Monitoring the Future (MTF) study has been
released ( http://www.monitoringthefuture.org ). MTF is a survey of
American 8th, 10th, and 12th graders pertaining to their illicit drug
use. Recent claims by the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy (ONDCP) with regard MTF data are misleading and do not
tell the whole story about youth drug use.

First, ONDCP's online summary of the MTF findings focuses on a very
short period of time -2001-2007 (
http://whitehousedrugpolicy.org/news/youthdrug_declines.html ). As in
its annual National Drug Control Strategy reports, ONDCP downplays
long-term drug use trends among young people. In fact, the ONDCP
website depicts only four figures, all showing declines. ONDCP does
acknowledge increases in some drugs (e.g. Oxycontin), but it does not
depict these increases in figures. Instead, as in its Strategy
reports, ONDCP visually depicts declines in drugs like meth and steroids.

Second, some of ONDCP's claims are deceptive. For example, it says
Ecstasy use among young people is down 54% since 2001. While this is
true, it is also true that Ecstasy use is essentially unchanged since
1997. Ecstasy use increased from 1997 to 2001, then declined since.
Overall, the trend is unchanged.

ONDCP offers a slideshow on its website which summarizes some of the
main findings from MTF (
http://whitehousedrugpolicy.org/pdf/MTF2007_ONDCP.pdf ). The
slideshow proves that the drug war has not been effective at reducing
drug use among young people over the long term. This is important
because ONDCP's Performance Measures of Effectiveness demonstrates
that ONDCP intends to consistently reduce drug use, something it has
simply not done.

Figures in the slideshow also show that use of prescription drugs is
consistently up among 12th graders since 1991. While other drugs are
down (e.g., LSD), this raises the possibility that young people have
not stopped using drugs but rather have just switched to drugs that
are lying around in their parents' homes. Ironically, these
prescription drugs are more addictive and potentially dangerous to
young people.

Third, ONDCP takes credit even for reductions in alcohol and tobacco.
It says: "When we push back against illegal drug use, youth abuse of
other substances decrease as well [sic]." ONDCP offers no evidence
that reductions in alcohol use and tobacco use among young people
have anything to do with the drug war, and that is because they don't have any.

In fact, the most consistent declines among all drugs depicted in the
slideshow are for tobacco, a drug against which we are not waging a
war; instead we are using honest educational campaigns combined with
efforts to restrict legitimate businesses from selling tobacco
products to kids. It is dishonest and wrong for ONDCP to take credit
for these declines.

The bottom line is that we've been fighting the modern drug war since
the 1970s. ONDCP's slideshow proves that illicit drug use trends are
virtually unchanged since 1975 among 12th graders - drug use
increased from 1975 to 1979, declined consistently until 1991, and
then increased since then. Recent declines in illicit drug use are
quite small and have not negated the increasing trend since 1991.
Illicit drug use among 8th and 10th graders has also not declined
since 1991. The slideshow also shows that drugs are just as available
now as they were in 1992, in spite of increased spending every year
on the supply side portion of the drug war.

In other words, during the tenure of ONDCP (1988-2007), drug use
among youth is not down, and drugs are no less available to young
people. This is just further proof that ONDCP is failing to meet its
drug war goals of reducing use and availability of drugs.

The President of the United States responded to the data, saying the
war on drugs is fought against an "unrelenting evil that ruins
families, endangers neighborhoods, and stalks our children" (
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/12/20071211-4.html ). If
this is true, ONDCP's drug war is failing to keep this evil at bay.
In spite of the spin, its own data prove it.