DRUG CZAR CALLS TEENS SOLDIERS IN WAR ON SUBSTANCE ABUSE

The nation's drug czar told more than 3,000 teenagers gathered in Pittsburgh
that they are the "front line" of the nation's war against substance abuse.

John Walters, director of the National Drug Control Policy, was the keynote
speaker yesterday at PRIDE 2003, an international drug prevention conference
aimed at youth that continues here through tomorrow.

PRIDE stands for Parents Resource Institute for Drug Education. It was
founded 26 years ago in Atlanta to encourage peer-to-peer prevention of drug
use.

"My responsibility is to help bring together people and policy to make the
drug problem smaller," Walters said.

"We do that with citizens like you," he added, comparing the teens to
infantry fighting on the front lines.

President Bush has a goal of reducing drug use by 10 percent in two years
and by 25 percent over the next five years.

As PRIDE participants in their rainbow T-shirts and baggy pants filed into
the David L. Lawrence Convention Center's main auditorium, Downtown, Walters
said the key to achieving those goals is stopping drug use before it starts.

One way to do that is by protecting young people from the Web sites, peer
groups and pop culture exploitation that can lead to addiction. The allure
of drugs, said Walters, is built on a series of lies: that drugs are fun,
teens can handle them and everybody does it.

Teens must fight those messages, he said, and not see doing drugs as a rite
of passage.

"You know everybody doesn't do it. You know the lie is a lie," he said.

Walters is especially concerned about marijuana. It's easier for youths to
get than alcohol, researchers have called it a "gateway" drug that leads to
more potent drug use and society has failed to view its use as a serious
problem, he said.

That kind of thinking is a "poison that leads to addiction and is the single
biggest cause of people losing their dreams and their lives at a young age,"
said Walters.

He said 6 million Americans, 23 percent of them teens, need treatment from
abuse and addiction to drugs, and two-thirds of those addictions stem from
marijuana use.

The speech hit close to home for Evelyn Oliver of Healthy Hearts and Souls,
a collaborative of 20 churches that looks at faith-based approaches to keep
communities healthy. Warning teens of the dangers of drugs and alcohol is
part of the group's program. Six young people from her collaborative were
participating in the conference yesterday.

"Many teens don't realize the dangers and long-term effects of addiction,"
she said. "What they hear here strengthens them and gives them a positive
outlook."