ECSTASY USE SOARS WITH PREP SENIORS

The Percentage Of Isle 12th-Graders Taking Crystal Meth Is Down

The percentage of high school seniors who report having tried
methamphetamine has dropped since 1998 while use of the drug Ecstasy
doubled, according to figures released yesterday by the state Department of
Health.

Overall, 5 percent of seniors surveyed last year said they had used
methamphetamine, or "ice," at least once, down from 8 percent in 1998 and a
high of 12 percent in 1989, when the drug was first tracked.

"It's nice to see crystal meth looks like it's beginning to stabilize," said
Elaine Wilson, chief of the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division of the Health
Department. "But we know there are a lot of people not attending school who
have problems."

The figures are contained in The 2002 Hawaii Student Alcohol, Tobacco and
Other Drug Use Study, a biannual survey conducted in schools across the
state. Anonymous questionnaires are given to students in sixth, eighth, 10th
and 12th grades whose parents give permission.

Altogether, 28,000 students at 181 public and 34 private schools responded
in 2002, nearly half of the enrollment in the grades surveyed. Although the
survey excludes dropouts, whose drug use may them from school, the data
reveals trends over time among Hawaii students and allows comparisons with
their peers across the nation.

"Hawaii prevalence rates for most illicit drugs are lower than national
rates," said Renee Storm Pearson, the study's principal investigator and an
associate professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

"Substance use continues to be a significant problem in Hawaii, but the
stabilization pattern in illicit drug use and the decrease in alcohol and
tobacco use is encouraging."

Despite concern about the spread of "ice," methamphetamine use reported by
Hawaii seniors in 2002 is less than the national average, 5 percent versus 7
percent.

Ecstasy use in Hawaii reached the national average this year, with 11
percent of seniors reporting having tried it, up from 5 percent in 1998,
when the drug was first included in the survey.

Although the study showed that students here perceive Ecstasy as relatively
safe, Pearson called it "just as dangerous as methamphetamine when you look
at what's happening to the brain."

She singled out Windward Oahu as an area of special concern, noting that 18
percent of seniors there had tried Ecstasy and 8 percent crystal meth,
compared to statewide figures of 11 percent and 5 percent respectively.

Overall, just under half of high school seniors in Hawaii say they have
tried an illicit drug. Marijuana is the most prevalent choice for students
in grades 8, 10, and 12, followed by Ecstasy. Marijuana use has remained
fairly steady for several years, with 46 percent of Hawaii seniors surveyed
last year having tried pot at least once, close to the national average of
48 percent.

Among sixth-graders in Hawaii, inhalants are most popular, with nearly 6
percent trying them.

Student tobacco use reached an all-time low in 2002, Pearson said, with 49
percent of Hawaii seniors saying they had smoked cigarettes, compared to 57
percent of their peers across the country. Alcohol use is also declining.
Students reported that it is twice as hard to buy alcohol and tobacco now
than it was in 1996, before the state began sting operations to catch store
owners selling to minors.

The study found that at least one in 10 students in grades 6 through 12
needs treatment for alcohol or drug use or both -- roughly 11,300 kids. But
state funds fall far short, covering just 1,500 kids in school-based
programs, Wilson said.

"Treatment does work, particularly for adolescents," she said. "We should
really be there in the middle schools, because between 8th and 10th grade it
gets real bad."

The study will soon be available at state libraries and can be viewed online
at http://www.state.hi.us/doh/resource/adad/report2002/index.html .